


Losing Infinity

by fragile_vampire



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: A novel, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crazy Azula (Avatar), Ember Island (Avatar), Episode: s03e05 The Beach, Everyone Is Gay, Extended Metaphors, F/F, Firebending is Gay, Healing Sex, Homoerotic Salon Time, Humor, Lesbian Azula (Avatar), Metaphors, Mutual Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Power Reversal, Slow Burn, but gayer, everyone is 18+, post season 2 canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:33:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 25,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24403627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragile_vampire/pseuds/fragile_vampire
Summary: "When they had nothing better to do on the trail of the Avatar, they would have relaxing nights in front of a bonfire that Azula made with her firebending, where they told each other stories and played with each other's hair. Ty Lee even taught Azula how to braid hers for her."--Azula and Ty Lee get everything they deserve and they deserve each other. A solid amount of mutual pining, a pinch of Drama, and a really satisfying happy ending.
Relationships: Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 244





	1. Celebration

Azula always got what she wanted.

And who could resist her demands? She was a princess, and a warrior, so those who didn’t worship her, feared her. There was no one in any part of the world who could defy her will. For a while, Azula liked that, but in her growing age, she found it a little depressing.

She walked along the wall that kept the palace of Ba Sing Se and looked into its vast interior. God, this city was a disappointment. She expected conquering it to be a challenge, but she had brought it to its knees without even using an army. All it took was her extreme competence and the only two girls she trusted to bring it down.

That was some years ago.

Tonight, the city - her captured Earth Kingdom capital - would celebrate her eighteenth birthday, praising her as liberator Azula of the Fire Nation. Oh, yes, people loved to celebrate their conquerors. They loved to be subdued and suppressed beneath power. Why didn't that satisfy her?

She was turning eighteen, and she felt like an old, wise woman, who had seen everything the world had to offer and then some. She wanted something new. Something challenging. Something _her age_. She looked down from the wall and saw some men raising up a sign that said 'WE LOVE YOU LORD AZULA' in large gold font above a walkway.

"This is the worst fucking birthday of all time," she muttered. She wanted to be as far away from this place as possible when the celebrations began.

She turned heel fast and sped to the interior of the palace, where her girls were lounging about on couches.

"Change of plans," she told them. "We're going to the beach."


	2. Invitation

Azula pressed her painted toes together on a beach towel and gazed out over the restful ocean. Ember Island was famously the most pacific resort in the Fire Nation and she had frequented it with her family in the past. She had horrible memories here, of course, but somehow she felt that the chance for something fresh and new was on this shore, and she was searching for it.

Well, maybe she wouldn't find it. She lowered her dark shades from her head and pressed them into the bridge of her nose as she lay down onto her back. She was incognito, so by all her luck, someone would find her before she would find what she was looking for.

Realistically, she had no idea how she would know when she found it, or what to do with it when she did. She didn't even know what it was she was looking for, because if she did, she would probably already have it.

The girl next to her coughed miserably. It was clear that she was ungrateful to be brought along.

"I hate sand." said Mai, her face deep into her own beach towel.

Azula rolled her eyes at her. They were sheltered from the elements of the beach by a large parasol, and Mai had hardly stepped outside it the whole time they'd been on the shore. "And I imagine you hate the sun, and the wind, and the sea..."

"Mhm."

"Then why on Earth did you come on this trip?"

Mai turned her head on the beach towel with annoyance. "Because I hate you," she said as though it were obvious. "But not enough to ditch you on your eighteenth," she finished with a sigh. She indulged in convincing everyone she hated literally everything to some degree. Azula liked that about her.

"Only enough to invite my brother along," joked Azula with a grain of honesty. She really, really didn't care for Zuko being part of her secret trip. But being a couple seemed to give you special, magical privileges that transcended whatever boundaries she tried to put up.

"You know it," Mai said with an admitted laugh. "Can we get something to drink at least?" she begged.

"I suppose we can, and get some food too, when Zuko comes back," Azula decided. Zuko was out who-knows-where on the beach, probably doing something horribly embarrassing, she assumed.

"Where's Ty?"

"Oh, Ty Lee..." Azula looked back over her shoulder. A dozen feet away, the little circus dropout was lying on her own towel, soaking up the sun in her white laced bikini.

"Ugh," groaned Mai. "Must be nice to not have to care about her skin." Mai hated how easily she burned in the sun.

Azula didn't care about her skin, and she certainly didn't care about her own skin either. Instead she found herself conflicted about the skin of Ty Lee, and how obliviously exposed it was - not to the sun, but to the eye. It was so clean and pretty the way it presented itself in her seaside lingerie, and her soft brown hair was so neatly braided and subdued. This was the first time she looked so much a woman to her.

The image awakened in her some confusion. Was this the same girl that constantly had dirt under fingernails from walking on her hands practically everywhere? Was this the same girl with a freckled complexion with whom she shared whispers in the night beside a bonfire when they were fourteen and chasing the Avatar across the Earth Kingdom? Was this the same girl who needed help braiding her frayed hair the morning after?

Her eyes fell to her chest, which had grown substantially since then, according to her involuntary memory. They exhibited their cleavage gratuitously in the tie-up bikini top and Azula hated it. She hated that she had to think about how much her friend's breasts had grown, because she hated what that made her. It made her a prize, a present. Not a person, but someone that the boys on the beach were inevitably gawking at and staring at and plotting to take away. 

"Yes, must be nice," she agreed. "Worrying about skin is the worst," she added distractedly, as if to justify her agreement.

A pale teenager in swim shorts ducked under the parasol and sat down next to them. "Ew, a boy," said Azula, throwing a clump of sand at his stomach.

"Grow up, sis," he said.

"Hey Zuko," spoke Mai, greeting her boyfriend with the slightest hint of emotion in her voice.

"So I was over there, talking to some of the guys, and they invited me to a party. I donno if you wanna go," he said.

Mai raised her eyebrows above her flat bangs. "I totally forgot. I think I got invited to the same party."

"Did you?" interjected Azula. A party sounded her speed at the moment. She wanted somewhere where she could be anyone, and the chaos of a gathering of tipsy teenagers seemed like the right environment.

"Mm," is all Mai responded with.

"Alright, so you wanna go?" asked Zuko.

"No, I hate parties," answered Mai.

"I know you do. That's what I love about you," said Zuko with an annoyingly soft smile.

"You two really must refrain from such colorful flirtation, it's making me all jittery," yawned Azula. She was annoyed but unsurprised that her opinion wasn't asked. But no matter - she would find an excuse to make it happen if it fancied her.

She looked over to Ty Lee, and to her horror, she had been approached by two boys. They were talking down to her as she lay on the towel and looked up at them. She hated that. They didn't even deserve to look at her. So she briefly considered walking over there to gorge their eyes out, but realized that she couldn't, because it might ruin her incognito. Something more subtle would have to do.

This was her cue to take charge of the situation. "Okay, let's get some food. On me," she decided as she stood up. There was a lot of cleaning to do, but she was sure Zuko and Mai would take care of it by her leave.

She walked over to Ty Lee. The boys were already leaving, but as she looked around, she could identify seven or eight gazes and therefore possible threats in their periphery. Ty Lee lifted her body upon her softly bent elbow and raised her hand in what may have been a salute or screening from the sun.

"Mai's worried about her skin so we're going to leave in a bit," Azula informed her.

Ty Lee frowned with some reluctance. "But it's so peaceful out here," she whined. Azula was a bit perturbed. She felt uncomfortable about it all. She hated being the reason Ty Lee felt disappointed, and that she seemed so happy and unbothered by all the boys staring at her.

"Yes, so peaceful," she muttered. She looked out into the horizon over the ocean, which was oversaturated with sun. She was plotting her response. "Hungry?" she asked, looking back down at Ty Lee. She met her gaze with interested eyes. "What do you say to finding the most expensive sushi roll on the dock and buying ten of them?" she dared.

Ty Lee stood up off the towel with exuberance. "You know just the words a girl wants to hear," she said, tossing the towel over her shoulders like a cape. Azula grinned victoriously. Her wallet was thick and she loved spoiling her girls. This was a win-win.

As they began to depart, Ty Lee grabbed her by the shoulder. "Oh yeah," she exclaimed. "I don't know if you saw those boys earlier, but they invited me to a party. Can we go?"

Azula frowned. "What, did everyone on this beach get an invitation except me?" 

"Oh, I'm sure they just didn't invite you because you look like you're about to kill someone," Ty Lee giggled, tugging on Azula's sunglasses playfully, which slid down her nose unevenly.

"I always look like I might kill someone. I don't need shades," Azula replied, fixing her glasses.

"Definitely," agreed Ty Lee.

Azula smiled. "Oh well, it's settled then. We'll go to your party, and I'll be your plus one."

Ty Lee snorted happily. "I should be _your_ plus one," she corrected. Azula didn't know what it meant, but it was amusing nonetheless, and she laughed too. As they made their way inland, she looked back over her shoulders, hoping to catch a glimpse of despair in the boys from whom she had removed the target of their affectionate fawning. Her wishes were fulfilled. To her delight, they were devastated. Azula always got what she wanted.


	3. My Azula

Azula wasn't anyone's yet.

She was a princess and a hero to her people, but no one actually knew who she was. She divorced herself from those around her with every action. The way she walked a little too fast. The way she tipped the vendor a little too generously. It was always a firm reminder to the rest of the world that she was not of them, and they not of her. It was confident. A little too confident, in fact, and it looped back around into being awkward. Ty Lee didn't mind, though. She thought it was charming.

Ty Lee sat at a fancy glass table indoors, playing with her fingers as she watched Azula wait by the counter. They were on the richest part of the pier, and she had just placed an order.

If anyone knew how sweet and kind the princess could be, they might fear her less. If they knew how well she treated her girls, or even her brother, whom she outwardly disdained, then perhaps they would see her as more than an icon of fear and power. What would they do, then? Would they want some share in her kindness?

Ty Lee wouldn't mind. She wanted everyone to see Azula the way she did. She deserved more than to be feared. She deserved their adoration, and she deserved their love, Ty Lee figured, at least in part because the amount of love she deserved could not be manifested by herself alone. Azula wore a lot of accessories in her hair, suspending its dark form into graceful shapes. Ty Lee perhaps felt jealous of them. She would _love_ to be the golden comb that lifted a bun in Azula's hair so that _she_ could show the world how beautiful she was. 

She would be good at it, too. She had a million imaginations of Azula in her mind - some of which were not savory - and sadly, the world may never know them.

Azula received her order and walked over to the table, placing tray upon tray of elegant sushi and inari between them. She sat down across the table from her with casual grace.

"They're too pretty," Ty Lee sighed, looking at the ensemble of rolls. They were each so dazzlingly colorful and carefully assembled. It hurt to think of destroying them. She rested her head into her hand despondently. "I don't know if I can eat them." 

Azula snapped apart a pair of chopsticks. "Worry not," she insisted deviously. She pinsired a roll with her utensils, lifting it off the plate and into her mouth, but not before making calculated eye contact across the table to ensure the act of defilement was observed. She must think she was being cheeky, because she let on a self-satisfied smirk.

Ty Lee was happy to entertain the notion. Her irreverence really only struck her as unapologetically sexy, and Ty Lee began to question her sanity. Somehow, she wished she was a sushi roll. If only _she_ were more pretty, Azula might take interest in _her_.

 _Oh no._ Her dignity was slipping away. Once, she was only jealous of Azula's hair accessories. Now she had moved on to being jealous of raw fish. How low could she go before the day ends? How long until she was jealous of the dirt Azula walked on?

Well, at least the dirt she could relate to. She was no piece of art, and no delectable meal. She was incredibly boring, in fact, when likened to someone as famous and accomplished as the great Warrior Princess Azula. Oh, but she could dream in moments, and moments like these - staring with burning cheeks at Azula as she ungraciously devoured expensive food in front of her - were dreams in the making.

"If you keep waiting, you're going to miss your chance to have anything at all," Azula informed her, as Zuko and Mai appeared to join them at the table. Azula shifted the trays of rice balls to the center to offer them to the couple.

"It's not my resolve," whimpered Ty Lee.

"Then you're going to be hungry later on," Azula spoke with a hint of concern. That hint was enough to send flutters through Ty Lee's heart. Azula so rarely showed any feeling for anyone, so when she did, it was all the more endearing. She squirmed a little in her seat. In fact, she was already hungry, and she wanted to eat, but she also didn't want to admit it. She put her head down to think about a solution for her dilemma.

Her meditation was interrupted when Zuko spoke up for the first time since they sat. "You know," he began, but he stopped. Ty Lee opened an eye to see Azula with her hand held up to stop him from finishing his sentence while she swallowed.

"Let me guess: Mai wants you to convince me to not make you all go to the gathering tonight," she assessed. Mai nodded her head defeatedly. Quick to end the conversation before it began, she resumed eating with steadfast dismissal. But Zuko hadn't quit to reason.

"I don't think we should go either," he added. "Father thinks we're still in the capitol. And I don't know about you but I'm not trying to get on his bad side. There's an unnecessary risk of being recognized."

"I'll decide what's unnecessary, Zu-zu," Azula replied.

When put on guard, Azula's mind was an absolute firewall to new ideas. You simply couldn't beat her with words. In fact, Ty Lee was well aware that the best way to get her to do anything was to trick her into thinking she was the one who came up with the idea. The subtlety of the suggestion was paramount. Ty Lee sat up straight and leaned herself in on the table, closing her eyes and opening her mouth. This is how she got what she wanted. As expected, Azula's chopsticks placed a rice ball gently between her lips. She bit down, indulging in a sea of savory flavors. Victory was delicious. 

"But I like the idea of caution with regards to our identities," Azula continued without pause. "We can't go as ourselves."

"We need disguises," Zuko ideated.

"No, that's stupid," spoke Azula. "I know what we need."

~~~

"I need you," Azula said to Ty Lee, "to give us each a makeover." She led them to a salon across the road. "Will you be up for it?"

"Makeover?" she stammered. Azula scarce let others touch her, much less rearrange her. The thought only scared her. To make over Azula would be to change her into the image of her secret desires, to confess her imagination. She locked eyes with Azula, and saw a reflection of herself glowing in her diamond eyes. She suddenly felt very vulnerable, as if each and every thought she had about her was under interrogation. She felt guilty. She _was_ guilty.

"I didn't mean it as an order," Azula darted her eyes away at a diagonal. "I thought you might like to make use of your skills. You're somewhat of a professional when it comes to girly things, like makeovers," she explained. "If you don't want to it's fine."

"Oh," exhaled Ty Lee with a hint of a blush, realizing it was foolish of her to be so flustered about such a request. It was a job she could do - and she would do anything Azula wanted her to do. "Yeah, no worries, I can do a professional job," she recovered. "Professionally," she added for self-assurance, reminding herself that her own personhood didn't need to get involved. She was, in fact, very talented at girly things, and Azula was counting on her. She wasn't going to let the secret of her feelings obstruct her duties as a friend. She never did, and she was proud of that fact.

"Very good." Azula cleared her throat. She turned to open the door and walked straight past the receptionist, who startledly asked if she had an appointment.

"There's no need for one, we brought our own stylist," Azula explained succinctly. "We'll just need every product in your store. And maybe some accessories?" she looked back for affirmation at Ty Lee. "She'll let you know what she needs," Azula finished, finding herself a chair and a mirror. Ty Lee watched her reflection. She was wearing a maroon jacket on top of her bikini, and had put on some proper pants. Ty Lee could see herself behind her, wearing a skirt and strapless dress. In the distance, Zuko and Mai followed with some reluctance.

The receptionist relented her confusion and quickly catered to her request. She was probably terrified by Azula's confidence. Ty Lee loved to see it in action. The way she knew she could have what she wanted, whenever she wanted, was inspiring. _More people should live like Azula,_ she thought to herself. 

"Let's begin with the hair," said Azula as she sat down. Ty Lee ran her finger across the various divisions of her hair, feeling where it was parted. A lot of tension was held in the accessories. The barrettes behind her ears and her large gold clip kept a lot of its volume tucked away, making it difficult to judge what she was working with. 

"You'll need to take them out," Azula pointed out. Ty Lee laughed nervously.

"Of course," she said, unlocking them one by one. The hair fell a dark clump of alarming weight. Ty Lee was suddenly transported to the last time she saw her hair like this. It was when they were fourteen. When they had nothing better to do on the trail of the Avatar, they would have relaxing nights in front of a bonfire that Azula made with her firebending, where they told each other stories and played with each other's hair. She had even taught Azula how to braid hers for her.

She barely understood her own feelings for the princess back then. They felt so simple, without need for explanation. That was before she understood things like where babies come from, and why someone would want a baby. It was before she understood that there were certain boundaries between them. As she ran her fingers through the princess' wildly long hair, she suddenly felt like she could live for a second in that innocent mindset, unseparated by artifice.

"So," said Ty Lee, inventing a silly old accent. "Tell me, young missy, what it is you are looking for today." She took a large comb to her hair with soft strokes.

"Oh you know, nothing too fancy, just different." Azula responded loosely. Ty Lee ran her hands through the clumpy hair, assigning it different partings, experimenting with the shape.

"Hmm," said Ty Lee. "Up or down?"

"Definitely up."

The receptionist came and delivered a tray full of supplies, including a dozen pastel capsules of liquids and rectangular containers of compartmentalized powders. Ty Lee messed with bringing the thick pile of hair above her head. It was beautiful, thick, and strong. It wound through her finger tips and fell casually onto her abdomen. She noticed an array of hair ties on the tray, and picked out a white bonnette with wavy frills. It contrasted so perfectly with her usual aesthetic. 

"If we're going for different, we'll need this," she insisted, grabbing the breadth of hair from the back of Azula's head and wrapping it tight with the tie, letting a voluminous ponytail sprout from the crown of her head while her bangs fell messily in the front. 

Mae made a noise and nudged her boyfriend. "Oh my god, Zu-zu. Look, it's you."

Ty Lee lit up. "Yes! I forgot you used to have a ponytail." She schemed a smile as she leaned in over Azula's shoulder. She slipped her hands behind Azula's bangs and slicked them back over her head. "Who wore it best: you or your brother?"

"I haven't looked like that in years," objected Zuko swiftly.

Azula just covered up her left eye devilishly. "Argh, I be lookin' for the avatar. Also, I have daddy issues." Ty Lee and Mai both snorted in unison. Ty Lee had to brace herself on the chair as she bent over in hysterics, letting Azula's bangs fall messily. Azula was too pleased with herself to care. She smiled as she pushed them off her eyes.

"I am _not_ a pirate," Zuko stated for the record. Ty Lee recovered from her partial collapse, and started to brush the princess' bangs to one side and then the other. Asymmetry didn't work on her though, so she wet the comb with a gel and split the bangs into even slices in front of either ear. _Cute_ , she congratulated herself with a nod.

"Pick a necklace," Azula commanded. She gestured to a cabinet which was strung full of pearls and gems on strings. 

Ty Lee's eyes fell to Azula's exposed collarbones in the mirror. They were so well pronounced. "Alright," she said, biting her lip a little. In her _professional_ opinion, it would be a shame to overshadow such a powerful physique. Maybe something small. She lifted a line of small white pearls from the drawer and draped them gently over her chest. 

"The color's good," she said. "But your eyes would prefer a diamond," she corrected.

"Diamond?" Azula inquired with a raised eyebrow. Ty Lee didn't answer, because she didn't know how to. She had frequently thought how sharp her eyes were. Looking into them was like facing down a sword that could cut steel.

"This," she decided, taking in her fingers a thin silver string with a bright blue gem enclosed sharply with gold embroidery in the middle. She tied it around her neck. To her delight it fell right between her collarbones. It accented them, as opposed to denying them. It was powerful and beautiful. It was a little too obvious, a little too brazen, and a little too big. It was perfect, she decided.

_This is my Azula._

It took her breath away to look upon her own design. She was relieved when Azula commented "She's a beauty of an accessory."

It was unclear whether she was referring to the necklace or herself. Given her decided lack of modesty, it could be either. Ty Lee counted on ambiguous chances like these to speak her mind.

"I'd kill for her," she agreed in a light-hearted tone.

Azula raised her voice to get opinions from the other two. "Well, how do I look?"

Mai shrugged her shoulders. "Like a girl," snarked Zuko. She kicked her heel into his shin. "Ow."

Ty Lee frowned, but then smiled with inspiration. "Perhaps you _do_ look like a girl."

"Is there a problem?" Azula asked with injury.

"Well, yes. Did you forget it's your eighteenth? You've gotta be a lady, see?" She opened up a rectangular box revealing an array of lip paints. "They have your normal shade. Look." A dozen powders ranged from pale to pink to rose. She hovered her index finger over a deep pink powder that closely matched the kind Azula wore whenever she was on official princessing duties.

"Very well," admitted Azula with some unease. "Make it one lighter," she interjected before Ty Lee could begin. If she wasn't imagining things, there was a quiver in her voice. The temperature around her face increased. Why was it so hot suddenly? Was it because her face was so close to hers? She plunged her fingertip into the paint, and pulled it in with a softly bent elbow.

"Sorry," she mumbled, suddenly realizing that she might be transgressing. Her flamingo-dipped fingertip hovered inches away from the princess' face. "Do you want me to do it?"

"Yes of course, why wouldn't I," Azula's breath rasped. She sounded annoyed, and suddenly Ty Lee felt stupid for asking. What would she have to object about? It was a professional courtesy. And if her body tingled at the thought of touching her lips with her own fingers? - then it was her fault for being so shamelessly lustful and imaginative.

She pressed her finger to the corner of the barely parted oval of Azula's mouth and arced it around the exterior of her lower lip. She was acutely aware of the soft sway of her breath, which she followed, so as to avoid going off line. She dipped her finger into the paint again and again, each time spreading new wet powder to the princess' receptive lips. She suppressed a burning flame in her chest as she focused each cell in her mind on her work. Her eyebrows furrowed intensely, and she thought she might start to sweat with concentration. It was not until the princess' lips were a solid pink hue that she allowed the dangerous desire to seep into her body and reconcile itself with the pink paint on her fingers.

"Very good Ty Lee," said Azula, pressing her two lips together in finish. Ty Lee unwound herself from the chair and let her body fall a few steps back. It was over. Her fingers sizzled where it was kissed by flamingo, and her chest throbbed in tandem with it.

She clasped her pink-dipped fingers with a white cleansing cloth as if to extinguish a burn - a memory of something she should never have touched. She had to snuff out the flame before it consumed her. There was nothing she could do about her feelings, and she had to constantly remind herself of that. She had promised long ago to do anything that Azula wanted her to do, and Azula didn't want her like this. So she had to forget her. No matter how impossible it felt now that she had felt her lips. No matter that her fingertips now were on her lips. She had to forget the woman that only she knew. She was the woman she loved to serve, where her service was not to love.


	4. Party Time

"Don't ruin this for me," Azula told her companions, leading them down the street to the party. After their visit to the salon, they stopped by the summer house to redress themselves into casual party clothes. "We're all going to let loose a little, maybe even go a little crazy, but we're not going to do anything that might make us stand out." 

"How hard could that be," sighed Mai.

"Some of us may need to change our behaviors," Azula explained.

"So basically - no walking on my hands, right?" surmised Ty Lee. It was far too obvious for Azula to bother responding to. She was much more worried about her brother exposing them than either of her girls.

"You might have it easiest Ty," said Mai. "Unlike the rest of us _introverts_ , you're actually good at pretending to like people."

"Excuse you?" Azula's pride was offended. Pretending to like people was one of her talents, and further she was miffed at the implication that her social skills were equivalent to that of the most awkward couple in existence. "I'm a people person!" she dissented.

Ty Lee shrugged. "Parties aren't easy for me. But, sure, I guess I am the most outgoing."

"Plus, we'll be surrounded by gawking boys staring at you," Mai continued, "which is basically your element, so, congratulations."

"That's not what bothers me," answered Ty Lee. "It's basically a compliment."

Mai cringed. "You're such a circus freak."

"Whatever!" Ty Lee evaded. "I don't need to be lectured. Especially not by you guys. I bet none of you have even kissed a boy," she retaliated. "Except maybe Zuko," she added thoughtfully.

Azula and Zuko both snapped simultaneously:

"I _have_ kissed a boy."

"I have _not_ kissed a boy!"

Ty Lee shook her head in amusement. "You two might be related," she joked. This insinuation was what annoyed Azula the most. Well, it may be true, but it disgusted her more than anything else said prior.

"Gross," is all she added.

"Heh," smirked Mai, grabbing her boyfriend's hand. "Well, I've actually kissed a boy before. And let me tell you, it's not all it's cut out to be."

Zuko sighed dramatically, and the girls chuckled one by one. "Oh yeah, duh," said Ty Lee. "But I mean, Zu-zu doesn't count. Look at him!" She pulled on a flower-woven braid that dangled by his left cheek.

"Hey, this was _your_ idea," he deflected.

"Yeah, the matching braids for you and Mai are so adorable!" Ty Lee enthused.

"They really are," Azula agreed. "Even I have to admit you look cute together, and normally you two repulse me. Just goes to show what a talented stylist Ty Lee is." Her annoyance was abated, and the tension was eased. It was good to remember that even in the agitated moments, there were some hobbies that the four of them shared, such as emasculating Zuko.

"Ooh," Ty Lee noised. They had arrived at their destination. A house stood high, and the buzz of activities could already be heard from down by the beach. They were right on the beach - the stone wall that sequestered the town from the sand was only a dozen paces away from where the wooden steps spiraled up to the raised porch. As Zuko and Mai began to ascend, Azula grabbed Ty Lee's shoulder to whisper into her ear. She had a mission for her.

"I need you to keep an inconspicuous eye on my brother," she said. "He's rash, and idiotic, and it seems like he's on edge tonight. If he's about to cause trouble, you are to disable his firebending."

"Oh." Ty Lee blinked in acknowledgement. Her ability to use violent acupressure to disable benders' access to their energy flow made her excellent at controlling threats. Azula loved how effective and neat she was at her job.

With that settled, Azula led the way up the stairs, and as she approached the door, she could hear the sound of adolescent madness within. Chattering, yelling, screaming, some muffled instruments being played. Perfect. It was so loud and chaotic, and there was no better place to disappear and pretend she was one of them. One of the kids.

This party wasn't her party - but she had made it service her, so in a way, it was hers. _I am a conqueror_. _I can have whatever I want_ , she smiled to herself, thinking about how swiftly she had met her own wants. _Oh, but I'm also fun_ , she added, reminding herself that she was not here for conquest. But who was she kidding - she was always conquering, even when she was having fun. _Especially_ when she was having fun.

She walked in and met up with her brother, who was standing at the edge of a hallway which led to a wide, open living room, which had been repurposed into a club. There was a proper bar, and a whole lot of tables for people to sit and drink at.

It was littered with people. Most of the girls were in a corner, glued to a boy playing guitar and letting out terrible squeals. The rest of the people were clambering behind a table where drinks were being poured, and someone - probably the guy whose house it was - was shouting at them to organize into a line. Her eyes fell upon a house rules sign that was hanging from the ceiling which prominently featured a 'NO FIREBENDING' warning on the bottom. The party was serious - a few men seemed to be checking IDs for drinking age. _Wow_ , she thought. _Whoever's running this is an actual narc_.

Zuko and Mai seemed to be arguing about what to do, but they couldn't hear each other’s words very well, so their shouts escalated with frustration.

"You know what," Mai yelled, "I'll sit down, and you can go get us drinks." Zuko wore a layer of disdain on his face as he turned around to join the back of the line that was forming behind the drinks table. As Mai retreated to a small corner of the room with a bench, Azula raised her eyebrows and turned around to face Ty Lee.

"You know, I think I could use a drink, too," she told her. Ty Lee knew what it meant. She gracefully drifted across the room to follow Zuko to the back of the drinks line.

Meanwhile, Azula joined Mai on the secluded bench. "What excellent servants we have," she declared. It was meant to be a joke, but Mai didn't respond. Azula didn't want her friends to be miserable, because it would inevitably interfere with the night she had plotted out. "Alright, I'm sorry, I know social events can be overwhelming," she told her. "Here: I'll stay with you until they come back, alright? And we can spend the whole party together, if it'll help you feel better."

"Thanks," Mai smiled. "I'll be fine. Just help me get to three drinks."

Azula agreed. She liked three drink Mai.


	5. Discovered

"Hey!" Ty Lee called as she caught up with Zuko. She leapt gracefully behind him, thinking of how wonderful it was she was getting a drink for Azula. What should she get her? Something bitter, something rich? What options did they even have? She was embarrassing herself in her own excitement. What Azula really wanted was for her to keep an eye on her brother, but she was indulging in the ounce of romance she could squeeze from the request. _What a romantic idiot is me._

"What's up," Zuko replied dryly.

"Azula wanted a drink, too, so here I am!" she justified.

Zuko shook his head. "I know your secret," he said.

Ty Lee froze. Her knees trembled with something between fear and nausea. No one knew her secret. No one.

"You know that I... that I'm...?" she stuttered.

"Well, it's kind of obvious," he said. "Who just goes and waits in a twenty minute line to get a drink for another girl?"

Ty Lee kicked herself shamefully. How could she be so careless? Maybe she had gotten comfortable with Azula's general obliviousness to her interest in her. Maybe she was used to her feelings being invisible. Maybe a casual onlooker could look on and clearly see that she was a thirsty bitch desperately trying to please her woman.

In any case, she needed to talk her way out of this. She wasn't ready for anyone to know how she felt, and it was all happening a little too fast for her.

"No, I mean, she actually sent me here to make sure you don’t accidentally start a house fire," she spilled from her mouth in automatic defense. She immediately felt sick with betrayal.

"Hmm… figures. I guess I’m not surprised," Zuko said. He didn’t seem shaken.

Ty Lee quaked in eagerness to change the subject. She needed to buy time until she had an excuse for her gayness. She bent her eyebrows apologetically. "Sorry she doesn't trust you."

"It's okay," he sighed. "She's right, I am a mess."

"Huh?" asked Ty Lee. She was taken aback by his sudden humility. Perhaps this was just what he was like when he was not posturing in front of his sister or his girlfriend. It was weird. He seemed so relaxed, so honest. Well, since he knew she was gay, she needed to know more about him. She needed a way to deflect her feelings, so she had to get him to talk about his.

"Maybe we can talk it out," she offered. "That way I won't have to hurt you. She told me to knock you out if you try to firebend," she teased, faking a punch to his unflinching face.

"Hmm," he considered. In fact, Ty Lee was also planning to knock him out if he tried to blab about her sexuality to anyone, so now he was in double trouble.

He shook his head resignedly. Finally, he said, "I can't firebend anymore."

Ty Lee didn't understand what that meant, or how that could possibly happen. "How come?" she asked. "Like, you literally forgot?"

"No, I mean, I can 'firebend', like lighting torches in stuff," he said, waving his hands around despondently. "But I can't use it like I could before. I can't start raging fires of emotion, or blind rage, like I used to."

"So like, you got it under control?"

"No, I think it got away."

"Got away?" Ty Lee was starting to get interested. 

Zuko nodded. "I haven't been able to conjure powerful flames since..." he touched the cheek below his left eye. _That was the eye that used to be scarred_ , Ty Lee recalled. "I have a theory about firebending," he continued. "Well, it's more of a bending theory in general. You know how cosmic events can increase the power of bending? Like when my father used the comet to... do the things he did." Ty Lee nodded. "I think personal events can have a pretty big impact too."

"Well that would make sense," she agreed. She really didn't have any mechanical knowledge of bending, beyond that it began with the body, and that without the body in its right form, bending was impossible. If there was an emotional side to firebending, she wanted to know about it.

"Firebending is fueled by unfulfilled passion and purpose, and that's what makes it so powerful. It made me powerful when I was trying to redeem myself against all odds by capturing the Avatar. It's like, the more you try to control something you can't quite grasp, the stronger it resists you, and that fuels firebending," he sighed exhaustedly, seemingly aware that his description wasn't making much sense. Ty Lee felt lost. "Something unobtainable," he muttered quietly.

"Are you talking about your honor?" she asked helpfully. Zuko shook his head.

"Maybe," is all he said.

Ty Lee frowned. She always imputed Zuko and Azula's proficiency in firebending to their shared genetics. But if there was more to it than that, then what _did_ give Azula her power?

"Do you ever think you want something for so long that it's all you think about, and then when you finally have it, you're like, 'so what'?" said Zuko out of the blue.

"No," answered Ty Lee truthfully, "but that sounds pretty disappointing."

"I finally have my name restored. My father talks to me. And I'm healed of the scar he left on me! And what does it matter. I just feel powerless." Ty Lee was aware that Zuko was vortexing into shame, and she didn't know how to stop it. "I'm probably just ungrateful. I'm an awful person."

"You're not an awful person," Ty Lee corrected. At least she knew that much was true. "You have the aura of a good person. You'll figure it out."

"Good person, huh. That's what my uncle keeps telling me." He froze when he realized his mistake. "I mean, before he-".

"I know you're still talking to your uncle," she cut him off. "Azula told me you secretly visit him in prison." He still seemed uneasy, even though he had nothing to worry about. Ty Lee didn't really care for the politics of the Fire Nation, and she certainly wasn't going to snitch her best friend's brother out for committing the babiest of treasons. Why did he seem so on edge? "She tells me everything, silly," she dismissed.

"I- uh. Hmm. Well, I guess we're both lawbreakers," Zuko said with a faint smirk.

"I mean I haven't done anything wrong yet," Ty Lee replied nervously. She wasn't sure if she could trust him.

"And neither have I," he said with a smirk.

It wasn't re-assuring. Her knees trembled, and she pleaded, "Just don't tell Azula about my secret, okay?"

"I mean, it'll be pretty hard for you to hide it," Zuko laughed lightly. "But I don't think she'll care either way."

"Really?" Ty Lee didn't know whether that made her sad or relieved.

"Yeah, I mean, she's a terrible person, but she's not _that_ terrible."

"She is pretty terrible though isn't she?" Ty Lee laughed uneasily. This was her lowest moment: overcompensating for her feelings by saying something horribly mean about her Azula.

Zuko smiled a little. "You don't even know," he said, shaking his head. "She terrorizes literally everyone she talks to. She has a heart, but you'd barely know it was there. You'd almost believe she's never kissed a boy."

Ty Lee scoffed, and corrected him, "Well. I mean she hasn't." Zuko just stared at her in response. "Wait, you don't _actually_ believe what she said earlier?"

"Well, it's true."

"No!"

"You think you know better than her own brother?"

" _Yes_ , Azula tells me everything." Ty Lee was sure Zuko was in the wrong here. He must be confused.

"Well, some things you just find out because you have to see someone you live with everyday. And I would know how serious our family is about courtship and marriage. As it stands, she's next in line to the throne - now eighteen - without a boyfriend. How do you think that looks to our father? So of course she's been introduced to tons of boys."

"Well, that doesn't mean anything happened," Ty Lee spoke firmly, but her eyes were on the ground and she was feeling a little dizzy. She couldn't imagine Azula showing interest in a boy. It completely clashed with her perception of her.

"Countless introductions," he repeated. "And you think none of them led to anything?"

"Yes!" She flicked her eyes up to stare intensely at the boy. Why would he say such things? _He's lying_ , suggested a voice in her head. No, that doesn't sound right. Zu-zu's not a very good liar, and he seemed so sure that he was right. Plus, he wouldn't have anything to gain from such a lie. _Okay... so Azula brainwashed him into repeating her lies._ Oh yes, that seems possible. But why would she do it...? _To throw people off. To protect something. Yes, yes! Her true sexuality, perhaps?_ It seemed possible. So what did we discover, she asked the voice. _Wishful thinking_ , the voice answered. _Bleh._

"It's probably just a misunderstanding," she defused with a smile.

"Hmm."

She suddenly felt very anxious. She looked over across the room and saw Azula and Mai talking to a boy in a secluded corner. Had she allowed herself to become too comfortable with the way things were? Her relationship with the princess suddenly felt so vulnerable and tenuous. Now, marriage, that was a commitment. But her? She was an accessory, a part of her childhood. She had no right to stay by Azula's side as they became adults, so how could she have allowed herself to become so attached to her? _Stupid, stupid Ty Lee_.

"Alright, we're here," said Zuko. They had finally arrived at the drinks table, and Zuko ordered his two. Ty Lee reached into her pocket to get her fake ID, which she had acquired with Mai's help at a dispensary in Omashu.

"It's alright," Zuko said, stopping her from presenting her ID. "I'll order for you, just tell me what you want."

"Oh?" said Ty Lee confusedly.

When they walked off with their four drinks in hands, she asked him how she knew her ID was fake.

"I told you, didn't I? I know your secret. I know you drink even though you're seventeen."

"What?"

"Mai tells me everything," he echoed slyly. "She told me you got an ID so you could drink with her on her eighteenth," he explained. "I know I'm the Fire Nation prince and all that, but I'm not a snitch. I really don't care about that stupid law. You don't have to pretend to be getting drinks for Azula just to get one for yourself."

"Oh," blinked Ty Lee in stupor.

"Just be careful. She also mentioned you're a lightweight, so don't get hammered and do something you'll regret."

Ty Lee let out a heavy exhale. She was physically exhausted. She had been panting heavily for the past twenty minutes, and her body was tingling, mostly from fear - but there was also some excitement in that sensation. For a brief spell, she was talking to another person whom she assumed knew she was gay, and despite that, the world wasn't ending, which was truly shocking and relieving. Maybe it was okay if someone knew. Maybe she wanted someone to know. Maybe she could tell someone.

She wanted to tell Azula.

She couldn't though. She wanted Azula to be happy, and telling her how she felt could only possibly make her less happy.


	6. Thirsty Words

Azula was unhappy.

She was talking to the most boring person she had ever met. She had, however, discovered that he was the son of the owner whose house they were in, and that he was hosting the party, and had to hire staff because of some incidents at past parties at the bequest of his wealthy parents. Although he was so incredibly boring, she calculated that winning his good favor would be critical to the success of her night. Beside her stood a wordless Mai. In a fight, Mai was the perfect ally - calm, precise, and tactical. In a conversation she was as dead as a log.

"We're having a wonderful time," Azula declared as her brother and Ty Lee joined them with drinks in hand.

"Ah," the boy said. "Good."

"Thank you, Ty Lee," Azula said, as Ty Lee passed a glass of deep purple into her hands.

"No problem," she answered cutely, joining by her side. Azula felt like Ty Lee might be able to save the conversation from total boredom, because she's usually the most interesting and talkative member of their group. But right now, she seemed dazed or tired. It was unusual. Usually she would walk straight up to boys and flirt with them like it was a game. _Maybe she's sick_ , she wondered.

"You're a life-saver," said Mai as she took her glass from Zuko's hand and began to drink immediately.

"Oh," remarked the boy, "you have plus ones? Wonderful." He paused in an attempt to acknowledge the two new guests, but Zuko was awkwardly avoidant and Ty Lee was spacing out. "Truly, wonderful," he repeated in Ty Lee's direction.

"Oh," said Ty Lee, snapping to. "Nice to meet you," she said with a professional curtsy. "I'm Ty Lee."

"This is Chan - he's hosting this party," Azula interjected. 

"Yup," he confirmed. "So don't get any trouble, 'cos I'll find out."

Ty Lee laughed autonomically. Azula's grasp on her glass tightened.

"I'm Mai's boyfriend," Zuko introduced himself awkwardly.

"Chan," he held out his hand. "What did you say your name was?"

"Hey Chan, why don't you give us a tour of the house?" Azula interrupted. She didn't want Zuko to expose them by accidentally being very stupid.

"Sure," he replied, gesturing to a path beside the central living room, along which Azula began to walk. Even when she should be following, her aura said that she was a leader. 

Ty Lee watched her go with indecision in her heart. She so very much wanted to follow her. She wanted to walk alongside her, tasting her perfume on her neck, exchanging meaningless words with her that were so full of subtext that she could drown them all in her fantasies. She wanted to serve her and be the subject of her commands.

But she was losing her sense of perpetuity, and the once seemingly infinite amount of time she could spend with Azula had suddenly become a number of days before she had to let her go.

Would she let this chance slip by? There was her princess, spilling unadulterated wit from her mouth as she pretended to be interested in the various objects pointed out to her by the boy named Chan. How she wanted to drink that clever smile, and suck that confident flair from her teeth. _One more tim_ e, she thought. _Let me play pretend. Let me be her 'one more time' friend._

She ran up next to Azula, and overheard the boy explaining to her about how his father was an admiral or something, and other dull facts about his family's history through assorted regalia hung on the walls. A few steps behind them, Zuko and Mai had retreated to a private conversation.

"I feel as though I've learned something about you as a person," she said with deft duplicity. The boy was flattered without being complimented. Ty Lee smiled at how well that worked. "What's this?" Azula continued, pointing to a distant table which housed a single painting. 

"Uhm," the boy began as he led them halfway across the room to the table. If Ty Lee were to guess, Azula had directed them to a faraway and singular object in an effort to expedite the tour, because unlike Chan, she was keenly aware of how boring it was to everyone involved. She was doing them all a favor. " _Fire’s Defiance_. Earth Kingdom, 17th Avatar Cycle. Oil on canvas," he explained. Ty Lee let her eyes fall on the painting. A tree with pink flowers was nestled in a sea of orange lava, glowing in the heat yet strongly blossoming.

"It's stupid," Mai's voice rang out for the first time. One drink Mai was loud.

Zuko stepped in to her defense. "I think she just means it's not very realistic. Like the tree would die instantly."

Ty Lee's imaginative mind became captivated by the painting and she drowned out the party peripheral as she stared into it. She felt like she had dreamt the painting, or maybe even painted it herself in a past life. Perhaps she was simply transfixed by its inescapably vaginal shape. It stirred her conscience. She was too absorbed to take her eyes off of it, even as various voices overlapped around her. She only came to when she felt a hand on her biceps.

"Ty Lee." It was Azula. "Welcome back to Earth," she said. Ty Lee stepped back and blinked, looking around for the other members of the party, but they weren't there. "Zuko excused himself and Mai, and you were pretty much checked out, so Chan left," she explained. "Shame, right?"

"Where did they go?"

"Somewhere quiet. And I think they want to hang out together. You know, as a couple. So we're on our own."

"Oh," said Ty Lee, narrowly dodging a blush.

"Besides, the Ty Lee I know likes to mingle. And well, those two aren't exactly party types. So let's do it. Let's mingle," she said forcefully.

Ty Lee's heart bounced. Azula was asking to _mingle_ with her. And it was just the two of them. If she wasn't knee-deep in anxieties, she would have happily taken Azula to go hang out and meet some interesting strangers. It would've been easy. But nothing was easy now. She felt, in fact, very uneasy. She looked around and observed the crowd. Although they were secluded and mostly hidden from sight, she could see quite a lot of boys from between wooden pillars.

"Azula, you're interested in boys, right?" she asked compulsorily, forced by her curiosity.

"Of course," she answered. "What girl isn't?"

"Hmm..." Ty Lee thought aloud, undecided about how to read her response. "Which one do you like?" she pressed.

"The admiral's son seems nice," Azula replied quickly.

Ty Lee covered her mouth performatively. "Ooh, Chan's your type?" This was exciting. Pretending to be interested in boys was her specialty.

"I said he's nice, that's all. I'm not even sure I have a type. Besides, for all that I am good at, I'm horrible at flirting. That's the one thing I'm not good at, so nothing's going to happen."

Ty Lee found this alarmingly cute. She moved herself timidly into the princess' eyesight and got her gaze to lower and meet hers when she touched her hands. "Do you want me to teach you?"

"Oh please," Azula tilted her head and removed her eyes from the contact. "You can't teach someone how to flirt."

Ty Lee shook her head with confidence. "But I can," she claimed. "Here, it's real easy," she began, releasing Azula's hands and holding up the number three on her fingers. "I've broken it down into three simple steps. Step one. Think of the funniest thing in the world. Something so funny, that even thinking of it makes you laugh out loud. Got it?"

Azula let on a reluctant smile and nodded. "Okay I've got an image."

"Step two," Ty Lee continued. "Pretend to be listening to whatever he's saying. And step three, when he stops talking, think of that thing you thought of, and then laugh like you just heard the funniest thing in the world."

Azula stared at her deadpan. "You've got to be joking. There's no way that actually works."

"I'll have you know, I've gotten countless boys to fall for it."

"Yeah, but that's because you're..." Azula trailed off.

"I'm...?"

"Well, you're pretty. Prettier than me, anyway."

Ty Lee's head went to hell as it absorbed the impact of the words she had just received and decided it was too much to process. "Oh my god, stop!" She knew she had a smile on her face, and she couldn't put it away.

"Well, I'm just trying to give you a compliment-"

"No, wait! Actually stop! _Chan's coming back_ ," she whispered, catching sight of the boy from the corner of her eye.

"Hmm? Oh. Wonderful," Azula said distractedly and sipped her glass.

"You're gonna do it, right?" Ty Lee urged with a whisper.

Azula nodded her head in cool affirmation. Ty Lee eagerly stepped aside to watch.

"Hey girls," said Chan.

"Hi," Azula responded haphazardly.

"Sorry to drop in again. I just noticed... I left my drink over here. You girls didn't put anything in it, did you?" he said with a silly smirk. He raised the glass to his lips to drink. If it were Ty Lee he was talking to, she would've laughed just to save the conversation from turning awkward. Roofie jokes are a bit of a low bar, but sometimes you just gotta play the hand you're dealt.

To her surprise, Azula took her cue to laugh. To her greater surprise, her laugh erupted into an unmistakably evil cackle. "HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA."

It was so definitively maniacal that Chan spit the drink back into his glass and hurried over to a sink to pour it out, sure for a moment that his drink had in fact been poisoned. Azula looked coyly over to Ty Lee as she lowered her cackle to a clever giggle. Her cheeks were rosy red, either from her uproarious laughter or the first effects of alcohol, and that had rendered Ty Lee a disaster. _She's so bad._ She squeezed Azula's hand to brace herself from the laughter that was boiling in her chest.

"You're the worst, EVER." Ty Lee cried, tumbling to the floor, taking the princess down with her. Her face was already sore from smiles, and tears were coming from her eyes in wild release. "Literally hopeless," she squeaked through her giggles.

"I just - did what you told me to do," said Azula through her own laughter, sitting pretzel on the floor and letting Ty Lee collapse into her lap. "Not my fault that I scared him shitless just by laughing at him."

Ty Lee rubbed some water from her eyes to look up clearly at the princess, whose ruby orange eyes glowed back at her warmly. Ty Lee’s smile was so burning and brutal that she knew her cheeks were pink. She didn't care that her butt was on the hard wooden floor, because her head was cradled between Azula's legs, and their hands were intertwined. Her eyes fell upon the delicious-looking lips she had painted earlier. She was close enough to kiss her. And worse, Azula was probably tipsy enough to let it happen. She toyed with daring herself to do so. "So what was your image?" she asked, buying herself time. "What made you laugh?"

"You don't wanna know."

"I wanna know!"

"Well, I don't want to say it here." Azula looked away avoidantly.

"I bet it's horrible. Like sipping blood out of an orphans head," Ty Lee pressed on facetiously.

"Kch," Azula shook her head. "Fine," she said, gesturing Ty Lee closer. Ty Lee pressed her hands to the ground to lift her limber body up over Azula's bent knees and bring her ear to Azula lips.

"Okay," Azula lowered her voice. "So one time..." she trailed off. "The fact that I'm telling you this means the drink has already rendered me compromised." Her horrible blush enticed Ty Lee to know even further what the epitome of humor was to the girl she looked up to. She shook her head encouragingly. 

"I was, like, 15, and I walked in on my brother, using fire bending to..." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Burn the bush," she hissed.

Ty Lee gaped in horror. "No..." she gasped. Her body tried to laugh again, but her ribs and cheeks hurt from the recoil of it.

" _Yes_ ," Azula cried, swallowing her embarrassed disbelief. 

"That's _so stupid_ ”, Ty Lee wheezed. Her heart turned over in relief. Perhaps all the laughter had cured her anxiety, because she no longer felt the sense of urgency that plagued her earlier. This was all she ever wanted. There was no need to change it. There above her was Azula, glowing, giggling, smiling, being herself, and telling her secrets. That was all she needed from her. Her feelings weren't romantic, or necessarily sexual. They were innocent. She was innocent. She could just keep looking up at her like this, like a friend, forever - and imagining kissing her was enough to satisfy her.

That lie lasted about ten seconds.

"Sheesh..." Ty Lee exhaled with relief. "There are so many safer ways to do that." 

Azula smirked. "I know right. Personally, I use a longsword."

Ty Lee's heart turned over like coals tossed belly-up, exposing their latent flame to the air and infesting them with heat. When she looked up she was pierced by those diamond eyes, and felt like every part of herself could forfeit itself to their will. The image of a nude Azula brandishing a sword was in her mind, and she was exposed to it. She was _powerless_ to it. It unleashed a million things she wanted Azula to do to her body, that she couldn't request. As much as she pined, she would never be her conquest.

"I gotta go," Ty Lee said as she launched herself off of the floor with uncharacteristic cumbersomeness. "Uh, pee," she finished, wheeling around on her foot as she spiraled to seek a window. She disappeared into the party, slipping through strangers to find reclusion. If she had stayed there any longer, she wouldn't have been able to hold back.


	7. Retrograde

_Freak!_ Azula's body was warm and tumultuous. She was just making a joke! And Ty Lee really acted like she just said the most vulgar thing ever. _I'm sorry, I didn't realize pubic hair was such a sickening concept to stupid, pretty girls like Ty Lee_.

There was more to her flushing face than alcohol. For a fleeting moment, she had thought about taking a bite out of Ty Lee's lips when she was there beneath her. She didn't know why it occurred to her - she _never_ thought about kissing girls, or anyone really. Perhaps she looked so vulnerable, or susceptible, or sweet, that she was beginning to see why boys were so often obsessed with her. She began to understand why boys wanted to kiss her. It was better than she didn't want that though, after the way she reacted to her vulgarity. She would probably think that was really gross.

She exhaled with restraint as she approached Mai, who was somehow already partway through her second drink.

"Hey, so what's so funny?" Mai asked.

"Oh, you know, that guy, Chan," Azula replied absently, casually leaning her shoulder against a wall.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to be more specific, because the only thing he was killing me with is how long he could talk about a painting and not shut up," said Mai. Two drinks Mai was pejorative.

"You're quite right, he's unbelievably dull. But, one has to entertain herself, and I am a woman after all."

"Ew, don't tell me you like him! That's so gross," she cringed.

"Heavens no. But..." Azula tried to invent an excuse. She really only mentioned him to Ty Lee because he was the only boy she could think of at the time. But now she was in deep.

"You'd better not be just trying to make him fall for you so you can break his heart and smash it in his face..." Mai trailed off. "Because if you are, I'm totally down to help," she finished. "That would be hilarious!"

Azula wasn't plotting anything so elaborate. However, she felt hurt, and hurting someone back was usually a good remedy for that. She decided to go along with Mai's suggestion for the time. "Yes, and I'll have you know, I've already got him wrapped around my finger," she decided with confidence.

"Bitch, tell." 

Azula's mind was a steel trap of useful information. "He left his drink on the table so he could come back and talk to us," she recited astutely. "He acted like it was an accident, but to the trained eye that's practically an admission of defeat. And that's not all. He's completely obsessed with power and status. It's all he talks about. 'My family did that'. 'My father owns this'. Needless to say, he's trying to impress me. Which is so hilarious, it's almost cute."

"This is very promising," nodded Mai. "What do you think, Zuko?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick," he said.

It was not long before Chan walked by the bench where they sat, and Azula performed a half-courteous wave to call him in.

"Hey."

"Hello hello," he replied.

"What brings you this way?"

"Oh, just checking on my guests. What are you up to?"

"Ya know, girl talk."

"With your friend and her boyfriend?" he asked skeptically.

"We mostly ignore my brother," she explained.

"Brother?"

"Yeah, but actually they were about to go somewhere. Uh..."

"Collecting seashells," Mai offered helpfully.

"Seashells?"

"Mai really likes seashells," Azula elaborated.

"Come on, boyfriend, you promised," said Mai, tugging on him performatively.

Zuko only let out a dramatic sigh as he cleared the area hand in hand with his girlfriend.

When they were gone, Chan nervously attempted to start a conversation. "So, having a good time?"

Azula hated small talk.

"Yes, what shall we talk about?" she asked. The boy opened his mouth to reply _"Actually-"_ but she quickly cut him off. "I know! Let's talk about our fathers' military conquests. You said your father was an admiral. He was at the Great Sea Battle, yes?"

The boy raised his eyebrows. "He's a war hero. He was there the day the last of the Water Tribes in the North surrendered. He was briefly captured, too, but managed to escape during the comet. And not to brag or anything, but he received a medal of honor from the Fire Lord."

"Wow, the Fire Lord?" Azula encouraged.

"Yeah, I know it's crazy. Like, personally getting something from the Fire Lord? Can you imagine?"

"I cannot," Azula laughed falsely, repressing her urge to tell him who she was. Maybe she would, but only once it would be maximumly humiliating for him.

Her eyes wandered into the crowd, and caught sight of Ty Lee walking around. She was deep on the other side of the open room. It was weird to see her so far away and so alone. She briefly wondered if Ty Lee was still punishing her for her vulgar comments earlier.

"Actually, to be honest," Chan said as he changed his tone and shifted around a bit, "I came over here because I was wondering where your friend went. The one that was really interested in paintings? I have a whole chamber full of oil paintings in the back and I thought she'd like to see them."

Azula recalculated the earlier scene in her head. Chan didn't leave his drink by the painting to come back to her; he left it to come back to Ty Lee. He left when Ty Lee was too absorbed in the painting to pay attention to him anymore, and he came back for his drink when she was talking again.

"Oh," she replied coolly. "Is that all? Well, she went to the bathroom and she's probably really sick. I'd stay away from her, for your health."

"Oh, shit, is she okay?" he asked, beginning to turn around.

"Wait!" Azula grabbed his hand. "I'm healthy. Take me!" she offered enthusiastically. To be the one asking _someone else_ to take her somewhere - that's not something Azula ever imagined she would do. She never imagined herself in the weaker position romantically. But right now, she was mad. She was mad that Ty Lee was denying herself to her. And in revenge, she would deny Mr. Pretty Boy to Ty Lee. She would never even know that he was looking for her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just - you didn't seem much like you liked paintings," he justified.

" _Paintings!_ " Azula nodded convincingly. "Heavens, do I?"


	8. Recrudesce

Most people ran from fire because they feared it.

Ty Lee was the opposite. She loved the fire she ran from. The only thing that she feared was what would happen if she gave herself over to it.

She went to the window to breathe the night air, which was cool, and subdued, and unexciting. She cooled off there, and then went back to the common living room by the bar. Boys and girls were beginning to dance with each other. The music was much quieter than the hum of overlapping conversations, and the dancing was clearly without intention. It was awkward, drunk, and disorderly.

It was everything she needed it to be right now. She surrendered herself to the same wild abandon that infected these stupid, reckless teenagers. These kids whose libidos were uninhibited by rules - she could be one of them, for now. She could let herself loose, let go of her self awareness for a bit, and maybe it would help her unremember the feeling of Azula's lips on her fingertips.

Of course, she wasn't letting go of everything. She had poured her drink out the window, and she had only one dangerous sip before that. She couldn't risk losing more control over herself. That was because even as she danced with strangers, her heart was fighting her, pulling her body away towards Azula. If she allowed herself to get even a little drunk, she might lose her domain over her heart.

So for now, she danced to forget.

~~~

"Those sure are... paintings."

Azula wandered aimlessly in a room full of paintings of which she could discern no qualities, positive or otherwise. She didn't know what else to say. They were probably impressive, or pretty, or perhaps they told some kind of story, but it was beyond her. _Ty Lee would have something to say about them,_ she thought. She had a sense of beauty that often mystified her. As she stared down painting after painting, she began to wonder what Ty Lee would see in each of them.

What did Ty Lee see in that painting of the volcano and the tree? Why was she so transfixed by it? She suddenly had to know. She had to ask her. Her heart was pulling her away from this isolated room, and she had to follow it to wherever Ty Lee was in the crowd.

"What do you think of this one?" Chan pointed to one, trying his best to save the conversation. But it was already dead. 

"You know I just remembered," Azula began. "My brother - he's really allergic to seashells," she invented randomly.

"Oh no," Chan said with alarm.

"Yeah, so I'd better go warn him," she added, making a swift exit of the room without saying good-bye. 

Lying was easy for her. Her body betrayed no physiological signs of telling a lie, so she always got away with it. During her childhood, she abused this to torment Zuko for fun. Why? Perhaps because it was so easy that it felt like a game.

Perhaps it was because so many lies were as much a part of her identity as her name. _The Fire Nation royals are a happy family. I have a happy life. I love my country._ How many times had she said these words without letting on that she knew they were a lie? Thousands, perhaps. She didn't care. She was so good at selling them, that no one had to know that she was a fake and constructed personality.

Azula wasn't real. No one ever saw any real version of herself - only the sum of her well-made web of lies.

She arrived back at the gathering in the main hall and quickly saw Zuko and Mai. Mai had somehow already begun on her third drink, and she was rubbing a sea shell lazily like a pet on the bench. Three drinks Mai was adorable.

Zuko handed Azula a seashell when she walked over to them. "Happy birthday," he said unceremoniously.

"Hmm," said Azula, not receiving it. "You know I hate birthday gifts."

"Because you think you already own everything," Zuko accused. Azula didn't retort. He was right, except she didn't _think_ it. It was the truth. She was next in line to the throne. So yes, she did effectively own everything, because everything in the world belonged to the Fire Nation, and so in due time would belong to her.

"So," spoke Mai with a smirk. "How'd it go with the boy?"

Azula pointed fingers to her head as if to mimic shooting electricity out of them. "Close to firebending myself," she smacked. She looked out into the crowd. There was no sign of Ty Lee - she had disappeared into the mass of bodies. Nearly everyone was dancing now, and it was impossible to tell what the intent of the dance was because of how poorly executed it was.

"Mai, could I have this dance?" she offered, extending a hand to her. She wanted to get closer to the action so she could search for Ty Lee.

Mai narrowed her eyes at Zuko. She shoved the sea shell and an empty glass into his hands, and declared: "Stolen!", taking Azula's hand and letting her draw her out into the crowd.

As they danced with joined hands, Azula glanced around, unperturbed by the mild alarm others that others showed at the sight of two girls dancing together. "Why are boys so incredibly tiresome," Azula asked her. Mai just rolled her eyes.

"You're asking _me_ ," she pointed out. If Azula had to guess, her brother wasn't the most ideal boyfriend.

"I am," she continued. "That Chan boy was like, 'what do you think of this painting,' for like ten minutes! How can someone be so boring?"

"You know what I think," suggested Mai, "I think you make it too difficult for them."

Azula frowned. "What do you mean, difficult?"

"Boys don't wanna work for it. They don't wanna get to know you. They just want pussy."

"Excuse me?"

"They just want pussy!" Mai repeated, and Azula was increasingly aware of how drunk the girl had gotten.

"Okay, Mai, we're gonna go find you some water," she decided, leading them through the crowd to where she remembered there to be a sink. She pushed Mai against the counter and let her rest on it. She was glowing red. Azula looked around for a glass to pour water into, but she couldn't find one.

"Just, splash yourself some water," she said, demonstrating how to cup water in her hands from the flowing faucet. Mai acknowledged and did the same and splashed her face. Azula looked around at eye level for a place where glasses were kept, and she came across a cupboard with a reflective surface. She saw a girl she didn't recognize in the mirror. For a moment, she had completely forgotten that she had been made over, and that she didn't look like Princess Azula.

Instead, she saw a face full of surprise and wonder, worn by a girl who was remarkably cute and pretty. Her ponytail, her makeup, her accessories - she looked so delicate, it could hardly be the same person who harbored such a disgustingly powerful source of firebending within.

It made her heart churn when she realized that the Azula in the mirror was a truer version of herself than she had ever told anyone existed. Somewhere deep inside her was a girl who wanted to be loved and adored by someone, and not because she demanded it, but because they actually liked her. She wanted it to be as simple as that. How did her made up appearance betray that fact? What accident caused this?

Her eyes fell to her own lips, and she remembered who it was that painted them.

Her heart tugged on her body violently as she heard a familiar laugh coming from the crowd. She turned her head quickly to identify it and saw Ty Lee laughing in the middle of the room, surrounded by boys.

It hurt.

She was giving them so much of herself for free. Her pretty little body was surrounded by them, and she was just letting them indulge in her cuteness, and indulge in her laugh, without any context or rapport. Why should they have an equal share in her? They didn't even put in the work to get to know her.

Mai's words echoed in her head. _They just want pussy._

She looked over to Mai, who was starting to cool down. She pointed over at Ty Lee, and remarked, "She's so much better than them." Mai didn't respond, so she added, "At dancing, I mean."

"Mhm," Mai agreed. She didn't seem to understand. She didn't see what Azula felt. _She_ wanted to be there, making Ty Lee laugh. _She_ wanted to be there, dancing with her body and putting her hands around her little waist. _She_ wanted to be with Ty Lee.

And she could.

She was the princess of everything. No one could stand in the way of what she wanted, even if she didn't understand why she wanted it. She was going to do it.

She cut through the crowd quickly and met Ty Lee face to face. The pulling in her heart reached a cessation. She was at peace. Her chest breathed gently as it hovered inches away from Ty Lee's. Without speaking, she took Ty Lee's hands in her own, and began to lead her across the room in a dance.

"Finally, someone who knows how to follow," Azula joked. "Most of these idiots are useless to me."

"Oh," said Ty Lee, who seemed oddly unfocused. She flowed gracefully between the shapes that Azula permitted her as they waltzed. Azula couldn't help but think about how pretty and elegant the little girl was, and began to wonder why it took her so long to notice. 

Azula tried to make eye contact with her. "These boys don't know what they're doing. They're terrible dancers." 

"Oh, I think they just came here to have a good time."

Azula was annoyed at how cryptic and atypically indirect she was being. "You know, you don't deserve their attention," she declared censoriously. She was ready to cut straight to the point.

"I'm sorry?" replied Ty Lee with a startle.

"I mean it," insisted Azula. "You're naive if you think any of them actually like you."

"What do you mean?" The faintest hint of a whimper came out of her throat. Azula backed her into a wall and pressed their joined hands against its wooden surface. She was done messing around.

"Oh, Ty Lee. They're only nice to you because you make it so easy for them. You give them everything they want without a challenge, and that's the worst thing in the world. It makes me sick."

Ty Lee didn't respond. Her hands squirmed beneath her powerful grasp.

"Act fake all you want. It won't give you what you desire," Azula finished. That was everything she needed to say. She had justified her pretext, and now there was no reason that she couldn't help herself to Ty Lee's lips. Her chest burned, this time with powerful lust. She leaned in for a taste.

But she wouldn't get one.

Ty Lee slipped through her fingers and ducked under her arms, escaping her clutches. "How _dare_ you," Ty Lee cried. "How dare you assume to know who I am, or what I want." Ty Lee looked at her with utter disdain, and then ripped herself away from her gaze, disappearing into the crowd. Azula stood there blankly with her hands in fists against the wall, holding onto something that had already slipped away.


	9. Surrender

"Thank you for coming with me," Ty Lee spoke between sobs. Mai patted her head. They were on the patio outside, standing beneath a pale moon and a million stars, sandals against the wooden floor elevated above the sand. Mai had been approached at the sink by a tearful Ty Lee, and she immediately dragged her out here for some cool night air.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Mai asked her.

"She was just..." Ty Lee began. _She was just so mean to me_ , she tried to say. Liquids filled her throat and she tried to breathe. "I have a secret," she announced finally after many sniffles.

"It's okay," Mai consoled, brushing her shoulder. "Do you want to tell me?"

~~~

Azula paced in confusion. Ty Lee was so pretty, and yet so frustrating. Nothing made sense to her. For a moment, she thought she wanted to kiss Ty Lee. But now, it was clear that was a misunderstanding.

"I think I'm just... not used to not immediately getting what I want. I think I'm jealous," she realized, talking quietly to herself beneath the murmur of the crowd. "Why should my retainer be so much better at winning the affection of boys than me? She gets all of them! First Chan, of course, but then on the dance floor too. And let's not forget the beach," she recounted. "We need a new strategy. We need to win against Ty Lee, and prove that we are the more desirable female." She spoke to herself with conviction. Now she realized that the battle for attention had begun long ago. So far, she had barely made a showing. Well, now it was time to get serious.

She needed help.

"We've got to conduct some recon," she concluded, eyeing the crowd for a helpless boy from whom she could extract answers.

~~~

"I like her," Ty Lee whispered.

Mai held a glass of cold water up to her temple as though she were flushed with alcohol. Ty Lee felt hot, too, like her whole body was sweating. Mai offered her some water, which she sipped. It didn't help her cool down though.

"Okay, so should I just let that be ambiguous, or assume you're talking about..." Mai trailed off with insinuation. Ty Lee nodded. "Mm," said Mai, confirming her suspicions that there was something going on between her and Azula. "Well, that makes my job easier," she shrugged. "I think."

~~~

Azula had found a boy in the quiet hallway near the bathroom door. She recognized him - he had been dancing with Ty Lee. She introduced herself as her friend to gain his trust, and quickly got around to interrogating him for useful information.

"Okay buddy. It's just you and me now. You will be rewarded for telling the truth. You will be punished for lies." She cracked her knuckles for effect.

The boy nodded enthusiastically. "You know, that's great, because I've had a lot of cactus juice tonight."

"Hmmm..." Azula thought. "Convenient, I suppose. Now, first thing's first: why am I upset?" she asked him.

"Uh, it's because your friend's really hot, right?" he guessed.

"Well I wouldn't put it so bluntly," Azula resisted. "It's a lot more nuanced than simply my best friend being so _stupidly_ attractive-"

"No, sis," the boy shook his head. "You're making this too complicated. It's nature. Girls don't like girls who are more attractive than them. They like boys who are less attractive than them."

"Interesting theory," she replied. "So tell me, do you think I'm less attractive than my friend?"

"Listen, I don't know if you can tell, but I've had a lot of cactus juice tonight."

"Yes, it's quite obvious."

"And I still wouldn't bang you. Think about that for a sec."

Azula winced affrontedly before reminding herself that this was a reconnaissance mission. She had to gather useful intelligence for her battle against Ty Lee. If she wanted to be the most attractive girl in the room, she had to begin by addressing her flaws. 

"Alright, so what's the problem? I know for a fact that I can't flirt," she gritted.

"Wait, if you can't flirt, then what are we doing right now?"

Azula pressed her forehead into her hands despondently. "Okay, put it as simply as you can: what is it _exactly_ that comes across as 'unattractive' about me?" she demanded.

"I mean I guess it's like, all of.. this?" the boy waved his hands broadly.

Azula frowned. "You just gestured to all of me."

"Nah, I was mainly gesturing to your chest, but-"

She punched him in the nose, rendering the rest of his sentence unsaid.

"Oh wow," the boy groaned, touching his face. "That probably really hurt. Good thing cactus juice is a powerful pain inhibitor. Did I tell you-"

"Yes, you told me you've been drinking cactus juice," Azula finished hurriedly.

"Yeah. But did you know it's a pain inhibitor?"

"Hmm," thought Azula aloud. "So basically you're telling me I can punch you again without consequences?"

"Why? Did you punch me before?"

Azula smiled. "Ah, bottomless chalice."

~~~

"I like her so much," Ty Lee confessed.

"Since when?" Mai asked.

"Forever ago," she cried. "But now she's gonna be Fire Lord and I'll never see her again."

"You'll still see her," offered Mai.

Ty Lee just shook her head with tears pouring out of her eyes. "But she won't see me."

Mai didn't understand what that meant. "Azula's not the type to forget her friends. You'll always be with her, just like me."

Ty Lee blinked some tears away. "Mai, are you also...?"

Mai tilted her head. "I grew up in a very conservative household," she explained. "I never considered dating girls, and I don't think I'll begin to."

"Why not?"

"I mean, mostly it's just so much harder," Mai sighed. "Maybe once my parents are dead," she considered.

Ty Lee laughed a little. It was impossible to tell when Mai was joking when she said dark things like that. "You don't know what you're missing," she muttered.

"Pray tell, what am I missing?"

" _Girls_ ," she emphasized. "Girls are the best. That's why boys hog them up, like they hog up everything."

"Heh."

"I'm not even kidding about that," Ty Lee continued. "Girls are... _everything_."

"Define 'everything'," inquired Mai.

Ty Lee began to recount all the things that she loved about Azula. "Well, they're smart. And pretty. And strong. And gentle..."

~~~

"Azula! What the actual hell? Why are you _punching a man repeatedly_?" Zuko exclaimed hushedly. Her fist was beating against the boy's stomach, and she was lost in the pleasant sound of the solid thumps.

"It's alright, he's on cactus juice, he can't feel a thing," she explained. "Besides, it's medicinal. My doctor recommends punching things when I'm stressed."

"I don't care that you're stressed!" Zuko hissed. He shoved two sea shells in her face. "What possible reason could you have to tell that guy I'm allergic to these? He thinks I'm going to have a breakout!"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," brooded Azula.

"You know what was a good idea? Acting natural. Blending in. Not raising attention to ourselves. Remember how that was our plan? Now you've gone and heavily bruised a boy. Very smooth!" he growled.

"Oh my goodness, you're right. This could raise some red flags," Azula gasped, dropping the boy to the ground with a thud. "We need to bury him and destroy the evidence."

"We are not killing a man tonight!"

"Eh, no one would miss him," she dismissed, adjusting some of her frayed bangs without project. "By the way Zuko," she asked, "who has the best tits: me, Ty Lee, or Mai?"

"Excuse you? You're my sister! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You're a coward for not answering, and a traitor for not immediately picking your girlfriend," she assessed.

"Get yourself together, sis," Zuko hissed at her. "I am gonna go find a window to throw these shells out. Feel free to get us busted. I'm sure Father will think it's really cool that his favorite heir disobeyed his orders to go get drunk as hell on some island for her eighteenth birthday."

Azula gasped in horror. It couldn't be a good sign that _Zuko_ of all people was telling her to get her emotions under control. _Zuko_. The biggest emotional mess in the entire world. _I've fallen to the emotional level of a cockroach_ , she realized.

~~~

"And cute. And funny. And adorable. And they're probably really good kissers-"

"Listen," Mae cut in, interrupting Ty Lee's seemingly endless list of traits she could find to ascribe to Azula. "I could let you keep hurting yourself. Or, I could put you out of your misery. And as much as I love misery, I'm going to do the right thing. Because I care about you." She turned about to face Ty Lee with dead seriousness. "You need to forget about Azula. What you want with her is impossible."

Ty Lee wrung her hands together in confusion. "Why?"

"Well, there's some good news to it, and some bad news. But first, before I tell you anything, you have to promise me you'll give up on her." Her eyes peered into Ty Lee's, tracking her avoidant glances. "Promise me."

Ty Lee shifted on the patio conflictedly. She had to know whatever information it was that Mai was teasing her with. She couldn't resist it. Whatever dark secret Azula had - she had to know it. "Okay," she said. "I promise."

In truth, she _was_ ready to lose her obsession. Somehow, much to her own surprise, giving up on Azula seemed a real possibility. Telling Mai how she felt helped her put to bed her own discomforts. Someone accepted her for who she was, and if she and Azula just weren't meant to be - well, that was just destiny. That horrible, devastating destiny - it was the only thing more powerful in life than love. Ty Lee never had any agency. She had merely surrendered herself to love long ago, and now, she was prepared to surrender to destiny.


	10. The Game

Azula's plan was all wrong. She realized that her strategy was far too reliant on boys to have any sense of good taste. Her latest encounter with the badly bruised boy had really only taught her one thing - boys hate strong girls. They only like helpless, unthreatening ones. And Ty Lee, well - she _passed_ as non-threatening. She looked cute. She could look even helpless. But underneath there was a warrior, and a far fiercer woman than she let on the vast majority of the time. If the boys only knew how terribly strong she was. Then they wouldn't want her anymore. And Azula would have won the game.

She began to scheme.

~~~

"Zuko?" Mai called. Zuko's face was peeping out of the window by the patio. Mai darted indoors and tracked him down, presumably to make sure he hadn't overheard anything. She had just told Ty Lee everything, and her mind was already absorbed in the process of solving what to do with it.

She, too, was scheming.

She walked inside from the porch and craned her neck around. There was a lot of commotion, and it looked like something was about to happen.

"If anyone here has a seashell allergy, you gotta let me know," came a voice. It was Chan, who was standing on top of a chair, attempting to corral a small audience. "I don't wanna get in trouble again. My dad’s gonna make me have doctors at all future parties."

The crowd reacted with mild hostility. They were unanimously drunk, and probably equally stupid to begin with. "Too many rules!" one of them shouted. "Who are you, Fire Lord Ozai?" Another member of the crowd shoved the speaker, disparaging his use of the Fire Lord's name in vain. "Dick," he yelled back, and soon there was an expanding cloud of violence.

"Guys, guys," Chan hollered panickedly. "No fighting - don't break anything!" His pleas were ineffective. Chaos was fermenting in the soup of masculine froth. Nothing could control it, until a piercing voice cut through the roaring crowd.

"Enough!" Azula called. "Clearly we all are a little excited, so how about a game?" There was some murmuring approval in the crowd. "A game of strength: arm wrestling," she continued. "Let everyone participate, and whoever wins will be considered the strongest man in the room, thus ending any need for... unnecessary action," she finished, with a nod up to Chan. Chan took his time to reason it out before nodding in agreement.

"Yes, it's a good idea," he decided. "Boys, line up at a table!"

"Girls will participate too," Azula interjected, and Ty Lee briefly caught her gaze across the crowded room. Her declaration was met with disapproving groans, until she tested: "Unless you're afraid of losing to one?" after which the opposition resigned its case.

Mai caught up to Ty Lee with Zuko right behind her. It seemed like Zuko wasn't in any eavesdropping trouble, and she had the faintest feeling that they had been making out because they were holding hands.

"Arm wrestling tournament," Ty Lee related to them. "Azula's idea." Mai gave her a mild glare that conveyed, _Don't use this to cause any more trouble for yourself._

Ty Lee smiled cutely. She was ready for trouble.


	11. My Ty Lee

The first few rounds were fairly uneventful. Azula crushed her competition, often literally, because her grip was like a steel clamp and her early opponents were always caught off guard by it. Eventually, she made her way to more capable boys - whom she still definitively crushed. It was recognizably unsatisfying.

On the other side of the room, Ty Lee enjoyed similar success. Meanwhile, Zuko faced off with Mai and was overpowered almost instantly. Onlookers mocked him for going easy on his girlfriend, much to his chagrin. Things were progressing smoothly.

Only a single boy remained along with the three girls. Azula sat down at the table where the painting of the volcano and the tree was. Across was her next opponent: Mai. She reached out her hand and rested her elbow squarely across the wooden surface. There was plenty of juice flowing through her deltoids, and she was hardly at all fatigued. Mai would be an easy opponent. There was no cause for concern.

"You've looked worse," Azula remarked to her. Mai seemed to have sobered up considerably. Her face had resumed its signature stony, ambiguous gaze.

"You've looked better," Mai retorted. Azula glanced at her through her dangly wet bangs. She had been too lost in plots to fix them, and they continually fell into further disarray due to the sweat from her hot face. But it wasn't important now. Her mind was filled beyond capacity with other things to focus on, like her plan to crush everyone and prove she was the best female option. She clasped Mai's right hand with hers.

"I've never _been_ better," she declared, flexing her muscles and pushing down on Mai's hand. But Mai's arm didn't budge. It stayed tall and unmoving, as if cemented into the table.

"Mai, are you actually trying?" she hissed. She hadn't accounted for this. Mai was scarce to put in extra effort to non-essential tasks, and furthermore, she was usually happy to let Azula win in any competitive games. " _Why are you trying?_ "

"Why arm wrestling?" responded Mai flatly. Her steely gaze shot across the table. Azula was flabbergasted.

"What do you mean, why?" She pushed into Mai's still upright hand with full force. She had never known Mai to be so inquisitive. "Have you gone insane?" she snapped at her.

"Have you?" Mai returned. Her icy resistance was fueling fire within Azula. She pointed her left hand at Mai under the table.

"Give up or I'll lightning you," she threatened lowly. She was serious, and Mai knew that. Whatever reason she had to try and compete with her, it wasn't worth getting electrocuted over. She released her hand from Azula's, letting the princess' fist smash into the table with a rumbling thud. Mai walked off with a flat sigh.

" _Victory,_ " she whispered to herself. But real victory was yet awaiting. This was just a preamble.

Ty Lee took Mai's chair across the table. Her face was mild. Oh, how Azula loved that face. It was so neatly framed by her cute, wavy hair, which trailed off in such a disgustingly pretty braid. The silky red corset wrapped around her upper body with graceful allure, and Azula became quite fixated on all the entrapments of its design. It tied itself tightly around her chest with a pink bow, as if begging to be undone and promising a glorious present was giftwrapped within. Her bare shoulders showed off her deceptively delicate structure. Her bones were so small and her figure was so petite.

"I've heard about the things that come in small packages," she teased at her opponent.

Ty Lee just offered her arm. "May the best woman win," she said.

Azula grabbed it. This was the finals, and she was not going to go easy on her.

Ty Lee's palm was small and her fingers were slender. Azula pressed down on them with unfettered force, pursing its supple form between her rigid metacarpals. All the while she was unable to keep eyes off of her opponent.

Most people get flustered when they're holding hands with pretty girls - or so she had heard. But Azula? She didn't even know the _meaning_ of flustered. That's why the burning sensation in her chest was probably some form of response to muscular exertion. And the somersaults that were happening in her stomach? Probably had to do with nervousness. But why did she have a tingling sensation between her legs? Well, maybe she was just excited to win.

And she was going to.

She pressed into Ty Lee's wrist and leaned across the table with determination. Her diamond necklace rested tentatively on the wooden surface as her chest grew nearer. For the first time since she couldn't remember when, she felt excitement - she felt like conquering her opponent.

Their hands were now mere inches away from the table's surface and Azula was so very close to smashing them against the tabletop. The crowd around them was jeering with anticipation. Ty Lee's face was stricken with urgent resistance. She looked so weak and helpless. Her arms were much smaller than Azula's, even when flexed. Azula liked that about them. She liked that there was more to those arms than met the eye.

"Cute, Ty Lee," Azula teased. She enjoyed seeing her in distress like this. The only reason she hadn't won already was because she was happy to milk every last second of overpowering her.

But Ty Lee hadn't gotten this far by accident. Arm wrestling was more than a battle of power. It was also a battle of position, and Ty Lee was the master of aligning herself with perfect posture. Her body was small. Her arms were pliable. There was no unintentional weight in her movement. And not to mention - she was also very, very strong.

In one swift motion, Azula's hand was usurped from its dominant position. Ty Lee leveraged her arm against the wood to repel her assailer with perfect form. For an instant, Ty Lee was on top. But it didn't last long. Without any defensive posture, Azula's arm couldn't hold up in disadvantage. She was defeated in a mere second. Ty Lee pressed her hand into the table victoriously.

Azula exhaled in exhaustion as the crowd went silent in shock. No one here expected this slender girl to win the competition. No one - _except_ for Azula. 

_Of course_ _they wouldn't suspect her_ , she thought with a twisted smile. They didn't know what she was capable of. They only knew the cute, harmless half of Ty Lee. _This is my Ty Lee_. And now they all knew how strong she truly was. Now _no one_ would want her.

"There you have it," Azula declared defeatedly. "The strongest man in the room." As the crowd whispered quietly, Azula stood up and prowled around the table. "Shocking, I know. To think someone so outwardly attractive could be so... _deviant_ from your perception." Ty Lee stood up and faced her defiantly. If she was a bit taller, her gaze could've stayed level to meet hers. As it was, she had to crane her head back somewhat to stare back at her. "I can't imagine how anyone would find such a being attractive," she continued.

A sudden voice came from the crowd, cutting short her monologue. "That's not a very woke thing to say," it said. It was the boy she had been beating up in the hallway not an hour earlier. He was bent over from bruises, but somehow he was still standing.

"Is that Badly Bruised Brendon?" came another voice.

"Ayy!" came another. "What happened this time, flight of stairs?"

"I, I donno," the bruised boy hiccuped. "But I just wanted to say one thing." He turned to face Azula. "Who are you to imply that boys can't like strong girls? That's very sexist of you," he informed her. "Boys can like any kind of girls they want! This is the modern age. We need to stop shaming boys for what type of girls they're into!"

The boys cheered in unanimous agreement. Azula was stricken with utter disbelief. When did they become self-aware, sentient beings? Her plan had completely flopped. They now rose up in celebration of Ty Lee, who received ovation and praise from everyone while Azula disappeared quietly into the ocean of a crowd. She lost sight of Ty Lee, and suddenly felt very small and weak.

"You know it's like I always say, Brendon," a husky male voice added loudly, "I'll hit anything that's got boobs."

Azula steamed with fury. She kicked over a chair and shouted at the top of her lungs: "Y'ALL LIKE STRONG GIRLS NOW?" She picked up the table and lifted it into the air with a hellish grunt. "IS THIS _STRONG_ ENOUGH? OR DO I NEED TO DO MORE?" She swung her body around and violently tossed the whole table across the room and out a window, which shattered. A distant thump signaled it landing into the sand below.

The room went silent again.

"Holy shit," someone said.

Azula had made her point. They were hypocrites. None of them actually liked strong girls. They just wanted Ty Lee. She marched off in the direction of the outdoor balcony. She was done with these pigs.


	12. What Have We Wrought?

Azula barged into the balcony without patience and was annoyed to see Mai and Zuko standing on it in a gentle embrace.

"Move, I'm brooding," she ordered. As they left her, she leaned over the edge of the balcony and stared into the moon-dipped ocean with a sizzling heat coming off of her body. She tried to relax in the cool night air, but it was ineffective. Her body was boiling, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was probably angry, or upset, or jealous, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. In fact, she had no clue what she was supposed to be feeling.

She was so very lost in her own emotions, which she likened to the ocean opposite her - writhing without purpose or project, and as deep and dark and impervious to comprehension. All she knew was that they were burning her up, and she couldn’t subdue them.

Her brooding was interrupted when she heard footsteps come up behind her. An unfriendly visitor, she assumed. She raised a fist in the air and prepared to punch it. To her surprise, she came face to face with Chan, who raised his hands in appeasement.

"I came to see how you were doing," he said, joining her by the balcony. "You seem a little distressed."

"Oh, do I?" Azula joked tensely. "No, this is me at my best. You don't want to see me when I'm distressed."

Chan laughed. Azula was alarmed by his calmness. It was almost remotely cute.

"Actually I thought you might be lonely," he offered. Azula's temperance was somewhat placated. She reached out and touched his shoulder firmly.

"Chan, do you really think I am the type of girl who gets lonely?" she asked.

"I don't know what type of girl you are," Chan admitted, "but I would like to find out." He turned to face her and put his hands beside her waist. He was leaning in for a kiss. 

Azula couldn't believe her luck. Her lowest moment of the night had turned around so fast. In her mind was only one thought: _I won the game_.

She was the winner. She defeated Ty Lee in the contest of female desirability. For a moment she was completely able to ignore how dull and uninteresting the boy across from her was. He was the proof. She leaned in towards his mouth, close to tasting whatever it was that victory tasted like.

But she paused when her lips were near his. Suddenly she remembered the pink paint that was on them, and felt like it would be a horrible shame to smear it. 

Her stomach lurched with confusion and unease. His breath didn't smell good, and if that was what victory smelled like, she probably didn't want to taste it.

She turned away and looked back at the ocean with brooding eyes. "Hey Chan," she asked, figuring she could still find a way to make him useful. "Have you ever wanted something for so long that it's all you think about, and then when you finally have it, you're like, 'so what'?"

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean," answered Chan. Azula hummed contemplatively.

"Tell me what I want," she demanded from him. 

"Sorry?" He seemed confused somehow, even though that was only the logical continuation of her question.

"Tell me what it is that I want," she repeated with frustration. "Tell me so that I can have it."

"Uh..." he vocalized. "Do you want to make out with me?" he offered. "Because that's what I wanna do."

Azula squinted her eyes speculatively. She was suddenly very suspicious. "Why did you come out here," she interrogated. "I destroyed your furniture, you should be furious with me."

Chan shook his head avoidantly. "I don't care, I think you're hot," he explained. She was unconvinced, but she wouldn't have a chance to finish her interrogation. Someone slammed open the sliding door to the balcony. It was Zuko.

" _Fuck you!_ " he said.

Azula was temporarily paralyzed by his sudden rage. "Pardon?" she replied.

"I spend all night being nice. I really try to be a nice guy. And what do I get for my troubles? I get my girlfriend taken away. She's so busy trying to deal with your _girl_ problems that I've barely got to spend any time with her. I'm sick of it!"

"This isn't a good time, Zu-zu," Azula deflected. "We can talk about your entitlement to my best friend some other time. Can't you see I have a date?"

"Oh yes, we wouldn't want to interrupt _your_ date," he hissed. "But _my_ date - who gives a fuck!"

"Sorry you're not the only one in the world who gets horny, Zuko."

"Well, I'm sorry you never don't get what you want! I really am. It must be so miserable being Azula, princess of everything."

"You have no idea."

Zuko picked two sea shells out of his pocket. Chan gasped at the sight, and Zuko rolled his eyes.

"There's no such _fucking_ thing as a seashell allergy," he screamed at him. "Azula's just full of shit," he yelled, chucking them into the distant sand. "What about your friend, hmm?" he asked her. "Do you think she likes being clam-jammed all night?"

"I hope Ty Lee gets clam-jammed for the rest of her life," Azula declared in earnest. There was an awkward pause that followed.

"I was obviously talking about Mai," Zuko explained with confusion. "Why would Ty Lee be having any trouble," he scoffed. "Literally everyone at this party is obsessed with her. They might start an altar."

Azula's grip on the balcony intensified and the wood cracked beneath her knuckles. The distant crashing of waves was all that could be heard for a moment. Finally, Chan cleared his throat to intervene.

"Okay," spoke Chan. "You all clearly have a lot of issues, and I don't actually want anyone to get hurt, so I'm coming clean," he announced with an exhale.

"Coming clean about what?" Azula said through gritted teeth.

"I don't _actually_ wanna go out with you," he said. "I only came out here because that girl said if I made out with you she would date me. I think she really cares about you. She just wants you to feel better, and I thought, hey, I could help. And kissing two girls in one night wouldn't be too bad. But now I'm starting to think it's more trouble than it's worth," he said, speeding through his confession.

"Ty Lee sent you," Azula echoed. He nodded. "Ty Lee," she repeated again. The wood beneath her hands began to smolder, and smoke started to rise out of it. She walked away, leaving ashes to pour from its embers and fall to the sand below. She was walking towards the party before she knew why, her feet leaving burn marks where her heels touched the wood.

The air around her stung with heat. The heat kissed the wooden walls and floorboards, impregnating them with fire. Voluptuous blue flames bursted from her wake, leaving a trail of orange blazes growing behind her as she marched through the living room. Where boys and girls once squabbled to the extent their petty libidos permitted was now the furnace of her unbridled, impassioned rage. Everything burned, and everyone fled. The room emptied out quickly to the sounds of screams and distress.

Chan ran to the door, beckoning for everyone to follow. His house was lost. Every painting within it was to be returned to its oily origins beneath her furious fire. Every accomplishment manifested in medals would soon be reduced to the gold it was worth.

Everyone had emptied the room, save for two girls. Mai was tugging on Ty Lee's arm, pulling her towards the exit.

"You," Azula spoke stilly. The heat that had been building within her body had finally escaped into the world. Her mind was clearer now than it had been all night. Her anger was no longer lost and undirected. It was eloquent and precise. "You value your lips more than mine? Or less?"

Ty Lee didn't speak. Her eyes glowed with orange flickering light, and her pink dress was saturated with warmth.

"Which is it?" Azula pressed.

"She was trying to give you what you want," Mai interjected, causing the flames around them to rise even higher. Mai pulled Ty Lee under the arch that marked the entryway of the house.

"I can have whatever I want," Azula announced, slinking towards Ty Lee's unmoving figure. "Whenever I want. I don't need you to give it to me," she said, reaching a hand out toward her.

"You're fucking crazy Azula," came Zuko's voice. He slipped through the crumbling house and pushed Mai and Ty Lee through the door. 

He was right, no doubt. Azula was crazy, whoever she was.


	13. The Beginning

The moon is beautiful, but it's only a fraction of the sun's beauty. The sun is so beautiful that if you look at it with the human eye it blinds you. The moon is but a receptor for its infinite beauty, portioning it to mortal eyes at a rate they could drink and survive. What did the sun look like in its overwhelming naked resplendence? How did it feel to gaze upon its original untamed beauty?

Only its celestial equal would ever know.

Thoughts like these passed through Ty Lee's mind as she rested her lithe body against the short stone wall that divided the beach from the pavement in silent patience. The night was still young, and everything she ever wished for was about to happen. She closed her eyes and leaned her back over the stone, letting her head fall restfully upon it. She breathed in the night air with splendor. She loved the sound of the waves that brushed upon the shore. She was also quite fond of sand, and its continuing infinity. The wind was nice too, as it caressed her hair gently. 

But she loved the fire the most.

The flames from the burning house radiated their warmth far, crackling with insatiable hunger as it engulfed and destroyed the structure. Ty Lee loved its distant, torrid kiss.

Zuko and Mai had gone. They were probably already back at the summer house.

 _"Come with us,"_ Mai had offered. _"I think it's best if we leave her alone."_

Ty Lee had no intention of leaving Azula alone, however.

 _"Oh, please,"_ she had denied. _"You guys can go ahead. I'll catch up later."_ She tried many things to get them to leave her alone. Finally, she said _"I wouldn't want to ruin your dick date,"_ which seemed to work.

 _"Gross!"_ was Mai's response. _"Not everything's sex, you perv."_

She and Zuko left shortly after.

Now all Ty Lee had to do was wait for _her_ date. She had waited so, so long for it. And now, it was only a little longer before she could finally give herself over. After what Mai told her on the balcony, there was no more question in her mind. She immediately knew what she must do.

_"I'm pretty sure Azula likes you too. She's been acting weird all day," Mai had told her, sipping her water glass. "And she keeps saying things that make me think that she's obsessed with you. About your skin, or your dancing. I don't know if she thinks it's not obvious, but it totally is."_

_Ty Lee felt the torment in her confused body give way to hopeful shivers. "Does she know?" she asked._

_"Probably not. I think she's too much in her own head." Mai closed her eyes thoughtfully. "That was the good news," she added._

_The news was too good to be true. "What's the bad news then?"_

_"That you can't go out with her," Mai answered. "It's not safe."_

_"Not safe?"_

_"She's literally too hot to handle." Ty Lee blinked with wonder. "She castrated the last guy she was going out with. By accident," Mai elaborated._

_"Castrated?"_

_"He was just a suitor, chosen for her as a potential mate by our fathers. I was there the day it happened. She lost control, and... well, he was so badly burned..."_

_"No way!" whispered Ty Lee in awe._

_"She couldn't control her emotions, and it led to pure, uncontrolled firebending. Firebending without purpose or intent. Just sexual energy fueling fire. She lost control and nearly killed him. If she tried to do it with someone she actually liked, well, she probably would kill you." Mai said this all with complete calculated consideration, as if she had done the math already._

_"She wouldn't hurt me," Ty Lee protested._

_"I don't think even she knows how powerful she is. You'd be dead before either of you knew what happened," she explained. "Promise me," she pleaded. "I don't want to lose a friend like that. Azula wouldn't want to lose a friend like that. You have to be the responsible one, Ty Lee. Don't give yourself to her."_

As Ty Lee's limber body rested casually upon the top of the stone wall in open abandon, a large, dark shadow cast itself from the top of the stairs, drawn by the flames of the burning house. It was Azula. 


	14. Urei o Fukunda

The princess' heels tapped on the wooden floorboards of the stairs as she descended to the beach. Ty Lee waited for her to make her way to the stone wall. When she arrived, she sat down a couple feet away from her resting body.

"Hey," said Azula. "Sorry I burned down your party," she mumbled.

"Ah, no, that's fine," Ty Lee replied. She was happy she burned it down. Finally, it could be just the two of them. No gawking boys. No background noise. Just the two of them. She reached out a hand to touch Azula's arm. It was cool. "You got it out of your system, yeah?" She seemed to have gotten it out of her system.

"Yeah I did," she replied. "And also I'm sorry I almost called you a slut," she confessed.

Ty Lee laughed. "Well, you didn't have to apologize for that! You could've just not told me."

"I feel like trash," Azula continued miserably. "I don't want to feel like trash anymore. I don't want to reduce myself to what others want me to be. And I'm sorry I tried to reduce you." Her voice was restrained and mournful.

"Azula," Ty Lee called. "Who cares what others want?" She lifted herself up off the stone and pulled Azula's hands close to her seductively. "What do you want?" she asked her.

"I don't know!" Azula bawled, taking her hand back and turning around in dismay to look at the brooding ocean. "If I knew what I wanted I would already have it," she whimpered.

"Sometimes what you want is what you already have, and you just don't know it's there," Ty Lee said softly.

Azula was silent for a while. Then, she spoke, with a hushed voice. "Ty Lee, what do I want?" she asked for the third time of the night.

Ty Lee giggled playfully. "Azula, do you remember when you nearly burned down the whole circus just to invite me to go with you to chase the Avatar?"

Azula scoffed. "You were so resistant to the idea. I had to put some sense in you," she recited with obviousness.

"Was I?" Ty Lee jumped onto the stone wall and walked along it like a tightrope. "I remember being pretty excited when you came for me. I just wanted to see how excited you were too."

"Wait, so you were playing 'hard to get'?" Azula realized. "No way! I didn't know 'hard to get' was in your vocabulary!"

"Because I am a slut," Ty Lee mocked impishly. "When I don't care, that is. When I do care, I make it as hard as possible."

"'Ty _fucking hard to get_ Lee'," Azula laughed, thinking about how carelessly she was dancing in the crowd of teenagers earlier. "I can't believe you. Why would you make me burn down the whole circus just to make you come with me?"

"Hmm," Ty Lee smirked, turning around on her mock tightrope. "Why would you care enough to burn down a circus?"

Azula blinked her diamond eyes.

Ty Lee hopped off the stone wall and landed her sandals onto the sand on the other side of the wall. Azula crawled over the wall and kicked her legs to the other side. She followed Ty Lee out into the sand, and when she caught up, she stared down into her eyes intensely.

“What do I want, then?” she repeated.

"If you keep asking that, you're going to miss your chance to have anything at all," Ty Lee replied. Azula just blinked with confusion. When she had nothing to say in response, she said " _You want to fuck me_ " as though it were obvious. 

Azula's orange eyes shone in the fire. "Is that what you want?" she whispered finally.

Ty Lee's voice was quieter still. "Yes," she replied. She moved her body in towards Azula's and put her hands on her jacket, gently pushing it off of her body. As she discarded it, she kissed her on the lower neck.

"No!" said Azula, pushing her away forcefully, flexing her body in restraint. She reached her hands back and flames poured out of them compulsively. Without aim, they were carried by the seaside winds and blown to the ground in an arc, where they scorched the sand into a semi-circle of glass.


	15. Powerful

"Well, I can't firebend anymore," said Azula, kneeling in the sand. "But I also can't move my fucking arms anymore, so how am I supposed to touch myself?"

Ty Lee covered her mouth as she laughed. Her top finally burned through, and it fell carelessly around her waist, letting her breasts free. They shone in the moonlight. Or perhaps, it was that they looked like the moon in their relative paleness to the rest of her body, or in the way they glowed in the flickering orange light of the burning house.

Azula blushed intensely. "They're beautiful," she said.

Strange, how quickly those two words were spoken. They transformed Ty Lee into the most powerful being in the universe. She grabbed Azula's head with her hands and massaged her temples gently with her slender fingers as she pressed her forehead into her navel. Then she left, going to retrieve the fallen clothes.

"Where are you going?" trembled Azula.

"I'm simply going to make a bed," she explained. She picked up her corset, and Azula's jacket, and her skirt, and lay them across the sand overlapping with each other in a long bed of silk in the sand. "Here," she said, pushing Azula over. She fell clumsily on top of the fabric.

Ty Lee touched her hips to the bed, lying cross-legged next to her. Azula's legs squirmed impatiently. Ty Lee's arms were folded gently on the silken threads, and Azula noticed that they accentuated her tits as well as they did her face.

"This is the worst thing ever," growled Azula.

"Hmm?" Ty Lee cocked her head.

"I'm wet as hell down there and I can't do anything about it," she explained.

"It is a shame," teased Ty Lee. "I'd do it for you, but unfortunately, Princess Azula doesn't let anyone see her naked."

"Maybe she does." Azula's eyes were wide open, displaying something between terror and thrill. 

"She can be convinced, I think," Ty Lee said, straddling herself on top of the princess. Ty Lee ran her hands along her forehead, brushing her messy bangs out of her beautiful face. She felt her core muscles flex beneath her crotch. She squeezed her legs into the sides of the princess' abs, which flexed even harder in retaliation.

"I know a lot about the body," Ty Lee continued as she rolled herself backwards, tugging at the waist of her pants. Azula lifted her hips and allowed her to slip them free from her waist. The underwear came next. She tossed all the clothes on her bottom aside, and pressed her legs open with gentle firmness. "I know that every part of the body is connected in more ways than one," she specified, staring down at the thirsty clit below her. It was sharp with how evenly the hair was combed.

"Yes, I know how your bend-blocking acupressure magic works," Azula said impatiently. She was becoming animalistic in her fervor. "Can you just, fuck me now, talk later?"

Ty Lee couldn't help but let on a mischievous smile. Looking at such a dripping wet vagina made her own a little bit wet. "It's terrible being restrained like that, isn't it?" she asked. Azula just groaned with frustration.

Ty Lee licked her fingertips and hovered them tantalizingly close to the other girl's navel. "I want to ask you something," she paused to say.

"If I tell you, will you please, _please_ , do me in?"

"Only if you tell the truth," she said.

"Fine."

"Have you touched it while thinking about me before?"

Azula bit her lip and clenched her cheeks. "Maybe, but I didn’t think about it as anything, just a random whim," she answered.

"Really?" yelped Ty Lee. She leaned her upper body over her excitedly. "How many times?"

"Fuck, I don't know," said Azula, glowing pink in embarrassment. "Three or four times?" Ty Lee peered at her until she gave a straight answer. "Okay, fifteen, I think," she admitted finally.

"Wow! Fifteen!" Ty Lee cried with laughter, letting her breasts bounce freely in the moonlight.

"Fifteen's not that much! I masturbate a lot, okay?" pouted Azula helplessly. "And I want to do it now. I _beg_ of you. Stick as many fingers as you can down there and let it rip."

Ty Lee took her time to get her laughter under control, milking every minute. “ _Fifteen whims_ ,” she wheezed. She loved seeing the princess here all vulnerable with her legs spread open for her, and she was relishing the position she was in. She was starting to formulate an idea. "Is four too much?" she asked, looking at her fingers, which she considered were probably much less thick than Azula's.

"I don't care."

"I think you spoil yourself," Ty Lee speculated with authority.

"Whatever you say. Three it is."

"Hmm..." thought Ty Lee. "Two!"

"Two?"

"I can go even lower," she wagered.

"I'm never getting off with one finger," Azula scoffed. "I'm not a baby."

Ty Lee smiled impishly. "I can get you off with zero," she declared with a whisper of maniacal flair.

"Hands free," Azula restated with ridicule.

"The body is a funny thing," said Ty Lee. "I can make you feel things you didn't even know were possible."

"Bet you can't," shot back Azula. Ty Lee could tell she was excited by the boldness of the claim.

"Bet I can," she answered back.

Azula laughed. Her body was incredibly firm and her feelings were often immoveable. There was no way she was going to reach orgasm without some hardcore stimulus. "No tongue either?" she asked to confirm. Ty Lee shook her head affirmatively. "What are you willing to bet if you can't?"

"Hmm..." thought Ty Lee. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," decided Azula quickly.

"Okay, perfect," said Ty Lee. "I know what it'll be." She began to move her hands around the princess' belly, feeling around those steely abs for a weakness. She wouldn't find one. Azula's body was fully on guard, resistant to any meddling fingers. She leaned over, pressing her naked breasts into Azula's body indecently.

"Is that all you got?" teased Azula. "It'll take more than that to get me off," she gritted. She was already tense with restraint, however.

"I haven't even begun," said Ty Lee. She moved her mouth close to the princess' ear, and began to whisper. "If you win," she spoke gently, "I'll tell you how many times I've touched myself to you." 

Azula never really understood what it meant to feel powerful until she heard these words. The thought of Ty Lee, the most beautiful girl in the entire fucking world, _thinking_ about her like that - it was too much for her to handle. It went to her head, and immediately overflowed and went to her vagina. Her mind went blank. Seeing the object of your desire was one thing, but being the object of lust for what she lusted - it broke her little brain. It relinquished its control over her bodily functions, completely overpowered. Her vagina seized with spastic convulsions. It had just become the most powerful vagina in the world, and it ejected a violent stream to celebrate it.


	16. Sex and Society

Azula regained full consciousness a few moments later, and when she came to her body had been turned on its side, with Ty Lee's nestled in the curves of it. Their legs were intertwined.

Her body was still somewhat in shock. Every hair on her body stood up as if a great current of electricity was swimming through her body. But it wasn't her own lightning. It was whatever Ty Lee gave her. It rumbled through her stomach with the promise of excitement and flooded her body with ecstasy. Her mind was saturated with dopamine and suddenly she felt tears streaming down her face.

"That felt like... fireworks," she declared with a shaky voice.

"You're trembling," said Ty Lee with worry. She touched her fingers to Azula's face, which was dripping wet. "You're crying," she realized, her voice full of regret. "Oh no, what did I do wrong?"

"I'm not crying," Azula sobbed. As tears rained down onto the silk in excess, Ty Lee pulled her face in close. She could smell the salt on her cheek.

"I think you just broke my tear ducts," Azula explained. "I've never cried before, so clearly this is some sort of physiological reaction to whatever you did to my body." Her voice was bouncy with sobs and hiccups, but reasoned and self-assured all the same.

"It's okay if it's an emotional reaction, too," assured Ty Lee. "You can have emotions."

"Then I'd just be another girl," Azula whined.

"What's wrong with that? Most girls are great."

"Well, I'm not most girls, am I? "

Ty Lee sighed. "I like you," she reminded her. "And I _only_ like girls, so you're just gonna have to hold that one."

Azula relented with a sigh. "How many times?" she asked her. Her tears had started to wane, and her body was starting to soothe itself.

"How many times what?"

"How many times did you touch yourself to me," she continued.

"Pfft," scoffed Ty Lee. "You didn't win, so I don't have to tell you."

"You don't actually think of me that way, do you," said Azula with an insecure whimper.

"Oh, Azula," said Ty Lee with heavy concern. "Of course I do," she said. "I think about you all the time, in so many ways. I think about your muscular thighs, and what it must like to be between them. I think about what it's like to put my hands all over your shoulders. I think about how lovely your breasts are. I imagine sucking on them."

Azula was embarrassed and overwhelmed. "That's what I thought," she lied. She rolled over and looked over to the shards of glass in the sand. They reflected their bodies in misaligned distortions. She hardly looked shapely in it, and that's how she saw herself - a fragmented mess of things she vaguely understood to be pretty. She had no idea how it fit together, but she believed enough that other people it did.

Ty Lee lifted herself up on her arms. "You are very sexy," she agreed. "But you know what I think is hottest of all? Your nature."

"My nature?" Azula scoffed. "Well, that's bullshit. I can understand being into my body, but my personality is simply atrocious," she remarked.

"I like it. You're so sweet."

"Well, that's just inaccurate. I'm cruel to practically everyone."

"But you're also nice to me," Ty Lee reminded her. It was true, and she knew that Azula hated to be called out for it. Her aura was pink - it was aggressive and strong, but also cute and sweet.

"All I deserve is fear." Azula recited the words as if they were something she repeated to herself constantly in the mirror. They came off her tongue quickly and unquestioningly, and Ty Lee's heart broke when they rang out.

"If all you want is fear then I have none for you," she whispered in response.

"Why? Don't you understand I'm a monster?" She nodded towards the rapturous inferno that burned across the wall.

Ty Lee gazed upon the flames in the distance with a pensive face. "I don't care. You're still beautiful to me."

Azula rubbed her head into the silky bed. "I don't know what to tell you. Sure, there's beauty in fire. I can see that. But there's nothing admirable about it. It's a horrible beauty. It's selfish and destructive. It doesn't care about anyone. It just burns, and burns, and burns."

"Then I'm still gonna watch it!" she interrupted in earnest, “because if you spend your whole life avoiding things that might be a little bit scary, then you're gonna miss out on a whole world of beauty."

There was a stretch of silence as Ty Lee's words washed away in the seaside as their chests pulsed with heavy breaths.

"Kiss me," Azula asked finally.

"Sorry?"

"If I could lift my body I would already have my tongue in your mouth," she informed her. "So please, I would like it very much if you kissed me."

"Oh," said Ty Lee. Nervous flutters filled her chest. She was used to getting orders from Azula, and she had dreamed up scenarios in her head where Azula forced her lips on her. Now it was all happening for real, in a way she never imagined. She was going to kiss Azula, and her breath shook as her lips went down onto hers.

It was a first kiss for both of them. Although they were nearing adulthood, the ways of the world had limited them for so long that the raw taste of another girls' lips was yet foreign to them. Ty Lee thrusted her mouth on top of Azula's with a revolving cadance, as if taking a drink from her wet, warm lips. Ty Lee had thought about them so many times. She thought about how delicious and nourishing they looked, and they were everything she had imagined.

Azula had stared at Ty Lee's lips sometimes too, although she had no idea why at the time. When she did, she was thinking about feeding them, nourishing them, and making them smile. It wasn't until tonight that she understood that she wanted to kiss them too.

Ty Lee relinquished her assault with an exhale, and immediately missed the taste afterwards. "I love you," she mumbled.

"I think I love you too," said Azula with realization. "And it's a good thing, too." She was a complete wreck at the moment, but she felt happy, and her lips couldn't stop smiling. "I never thought I'd be able to fuck someone and still have a conversation with them afterwards. You know, because otherwise they'd be so charred."

Ty Lee snorted with laughter. "That's so hot," she cried, lifting herself away to rub off the tears of joy on her face.

Azula let out a laugh of her own. "You got my lipstick on there," she said. "All over your face."

"Oh," blushed Ty Lee. "Okay, okay," she said. Azula returned herself to her back. "But first," she said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I want to see you naked."

"Okay," said Azula temperately. Ty Lee slipped her hand through the girl's bra strap and pulled it up and over her firm little titties. Her stomach tumbled when she looked upon them. 

“Sweet sugar cakes,” she exhaled. They were adamant in their triangular shape. She felt her own pants get wet again as she gazed upon them with awe. She wanted to touch herself, and suck on those exquisite boobs below her. But even moreso, she wanted to serve the girl beneath her, whose vagina was far more needy than hers.


	17. Society and Lovee

The princess lay nude on top of their clothes and beneath the starlit sky, and her servant kneeled between her bent legs, absorbed in her devotion to detail as she gave pleasure to the princess with her hands.

She rubbed her princess' clit furiously with her wetted fingers. Azula had already ejaculated a second time, but there was still more to be done. Her fingers became powerful, pliable tools, inserting themselves slickly and quickly, until it was too much for her to contain. Her vagina unleashed its juices in ecstacy once more.

Azula became pensive as her body went wild for the third time of the night. She thought about how incredibly fortuitous it was that she should be friends with someone capable of doing these sorts of acts for her. There could not be a more lucky woman in this world, in fact. Her vagina was as impenetrable of a fortress as her heart, and as vicious in its self-defense, too. And yet, she had found herself quite possibly the one person in the world who could ever penetrate either. And she was willing to do both! How ineffably improbable was that?

"Do you think destiny brought us together?" she asked, as Ty Lee lay herself next to her again.

"Destiny?" Ty Lee seemed bewildered by the question.

"What, don't you believe in destiny and love and all that?" asked Azula lightly. She wasn't sure if she believed in them herself. She always relied on Ty Lee to be the expert on such things as destiny. Now she felt very embarrassed for bringing it up. It was such an adolescent question.

"I do," answered Ty Lee. "But I don't think they’re allies. I've always thought they were equal opposite forces or something."

"You don't think that they're the same, love and destiny?" puzzled Azula. She always grew up hearing about fantasies where lovers were brought together by coincidence and it was chalked up to destiny. To her mind, the words had been practically synonyms.

"Love and destiny are constantly fighting each other for control of our fates," explained Ty Lee, who had already spent much time reflecting on the way those two forces interacted in her own life.

"Maybe we make our own fate," guessed Azula, without education.

Ty Lee frowned a bit. "Maybe. But, I don't think so. I mean I've never had much say in who I'm allowed to love."

Azula scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "I thought you loved me," she questioned.

"I do," whispered Ty Lee with muzzled sorrow. "And I will love you tonight, but not forever. I can’t keep holding onto you once destiny pulls you away."

"My destiny?" Azula inquired, voice thick with confusion.

"Princess Azula - Fire Lord Azula - doesn't have time for someone like me."

Azula was shocked. "Whatever are you talking about, Ty Lee? I will make time for you," she urged.

Ty Lee exhaled deeply. "Thanks for saying that, I really appreciate it. But..." Ty Lee understood that it was not the truth. Azula could only say these things now because she was powerless. She knew Princess Azula, and she knew that power was the first object in her heart. She didn't fault her for that. Azula wanted to be the most powerful woman in history - and yes, Ty Lee wanted her to be the most powerful woman in history. But she couldn't be that and be her wife. And she had said earlier that she wouldn’t take her life. This was a one night stand, with maybe some reprises if she was lucky. "You can't have me and the world," she summarized at last.

"I..." Azula's voice quaked with lack of resolve. "I can have more than one thing," she protested.

"Do you really think you can be 'Princess Azula' and the woman you are right now?" she asked as she pressed her knuckles against her chest, "At the same time?"

"Yes, yes, yes I can," she said, her voice pouring out desperation with every word. "I want to be your lover for all time." 

Her feelings were honest, and she wanted more than anything for Ty Lee to believe her. But her words felt empty of promise when she spoke them, and she didn't know how to fill them with truth. "I know what I want now," she recycled with finality. "I know who I am."

Ty Lee hummed inquisitively. She turned her body around and lifted herself up on her side, looking over to the arc of glass. Their bodies were strewn across multiple fractured panels, showing them at various positions and various alignments. "Do you know who I am?" she asked.

"Sheesh," sighed Azula. "I know enough," she said. "I know you're more than I bargained for, Ty Lee."

"How's that?" She asked inquisitively.

"I don't know," said Azula with a silly blush. "You're just, amazing. I came to this island to forget myself, and I think you just made me remember myself."

"Hmm," said Ty Lee. The faintest whisper of a smile flickered on her face. "You're such a dreamer," she teased, poking Azula's cheek.

"How am I a dreamer?" deflected Azula playfully. "I'm always the pragmatic one."

"Okay, pragmatic one," inquired Ty Lee. "How are you planning on being my 'lover for all time' when the Fire Lord will inevitably require _having your own heir_. Hmm? There's no way that two women can make one together," she posed.

"I'll... I'll find a solution," offered Azula. "I'll steal someone's baby and brainwash it or something."

Ty Lee let out a sharp involuntary laugh. 

"I mean it! I'll have all the science of the world on my side. I could hire an alchemist to make one for me."

Ty Lee shook her head. She rolled herself on top of Azula, and raised herself up on all fours, elevated squarely above her body. "I think it's bedtime for you," she said with authority.

Azula's stomach sank. "Not bedtime! I haven't even made you orgasm yet," she protested.

Ty Lee blushed mildly. "It's fine," she said. "You don't need to worry about it. I got to service you, and that's pretty much all I ever wanted."

Azula bit her lip thoughtfully. "But I want to service you," she blurted out finally, amazed at the words coming out of her own mouth. 

"How?" smirked Ty Lee. "You don't have arms."

Azula lifted her knee and pressed it between Ty Lee's legs with determination, causing her to yelp in surprise.

"I'll use my tongue," said her tongue.


	18. Denial

"Mmmm... ahhh... Mmmm..." Ty Lee's musical moans were soft on the ears. Azula's tongue worked with meticulous aim and measured pressure on the light pink pussy exposed before her. The white laced panties had been pushed aside from her genitals where Azula licked them. Her fingers clenched into the sand beneath the silky padding in response.

"Are you getting close?" Azula asked. She had been tonguing her for quite some time, and she was starting to get tired, much to her chagrin. The tangy taste of Ty Lee was disappearing into the numbness in her tongue.

"Mhm," chirped Ty Lee cutely, with some distraction.

"How close?"

"Uh... a little close," she yawned.

Azula exhaled disappointment. "I've been at this for like, ten minutes," she sighed.

"Yes, it's been heavenly," replied Ty Lee absently. The heat from the burning house had subsided substantially, and its emitted glow, too, was dimming. Ty Lee seemed like she was about to pass out, and Azula felt empty and useless.

"It's not your fault," dismissed Ty Lee. "Really, it's the thought that counts."

"What am I doing wrong?" Azula asked. The tremble in her voice undermined her demanding tone. "Too hard? Too soft?"

"No, you did great." Ty Lee said, fixing her panties and sitting upright. "I'm just tired," she assured her.

"I will not let you go to bed unsastified," objected Azula.

"Well, I'm sorry, it's just... without hands, nothing's gonna happen."

Azula felt heavy with ineptitude. She couldn't make use of her powerful fingers, or any of the techniques or practices she had perfected on her own body. She was useless. She couldn't share any of it.

"Do it for me," Azula spat out. She was reluctant to accept her limitations, but she wanted more than anything right now for Ty Lee to get off for her. "I want to watch. Touch it for me."

"Azula..." Ty Lee panted exhaustedly. Her energy was truly spent, but she hated seeing her princess so dismayed. She couldn't let her down like this. She took off her bottoms and tossed them aside.

She wet her fingers again and inserted them gently with rhythmic repetition. Her pussy was soon dripping and twitching. She played herself like a gentle instrument, softly escalating her own convulsions. Azula watched with feverish delight, imagining it was her own hands doing the work. It was ridiculous, of course. She would've fucked her much harder and faster. She would've peaked by now.

But Ty Lee wouldn't at all tonight.

She let out a long, sustained yawn, and said, "I'm tired," then crawled back over to the cloth that Azula was still lying on and curled up beside her. 

"But I want you to be satisfied," Azula protested.

"Well, you don't always get what you want," Ty Lee sleepily mumbled.

Her eyelids were heavy. So heavy that they closed without consent. Many, many things had happened tonight, and she wanted to go to sleep for a while, and remember them in her dreams for eternity. "Goodnight," she said, making herself into a little spoon, her back against Azula's pointed breasts.

Azula scoffed lightly. "You can't sleep here," she said. The response that came was a snore. Azula leaned her head into the back of Ty Lee's, letting the bridge of her nose land on her hair. She could smell sweat, perfume, and tears, all at once.

There was no way she was going to let her wake up on the beach tomorrow naked. When the strength in her arms finally started to return, she sat up with the help of her core muscles and reached around for a clean piece of clothing. She picked it up, and gingerly used it to wrap up Ty Lee's little body with a scoop.

"Alright," she said. Her body was tired, too. She felt like she had undergone a full body transformation, and every muscle in her body was spent and numb. With what strength she had left, she lifted the sleeping beauty up to her chest princess style. She stood up and looked into the writhing sea with calm appreciation. The last flames of the house died out, and it was now only lit by the moon’s gentle reflective light, and that made it seem so much less dark and forbidding.

As she went, she held Ty Lee cradled in her arms - her cute, slender legs hanging off the edge of her elbows. She kissed her once tenderly on the forehead.


	19. Masters

Ty Lee sat up in the morning sun adaze. Her tangled mess of hair fell chaotically on her breasts. Across from her bed was Mai's vacant bed. They shared a room in the summer house, while Zuko and Azula each had their own.

Mai opened the door and walked into the room, already dressed for the day. "Ugh, put on some clothes," she said, immediately covering her eyes.

"Oh yeah," she replied, feeling around her sheets. She wondered if her clothes were still on the beach. If they were inside, she would probably smell the stench of what happened on them last night. She rolled out of bed and looked around for a fresh pair.

"Want to tell me how it went with Zuko last night?" Ty Lee asked as she found some bottoms to wear.

"No," was her reply. "Want to tell me how it went with Azula last night?"

"Not particularly," said Ty Lee. "Can I borrow a bra?" she asked. "I lost mine."

"You only brought your bikini?" Mai asked incredulously. She picked a bra out of her neatly fit cupboards. "I don't think it'll fit," she said, offering it with one hand still over her eyes.

"I owe you one," said Ty Lee happily.

~~~

Ty Lee's chest scrunched uncomfortably beneath Mai's weighty undergarment. It was nothing like she was used to wearing.

She and Mai finished cleaning out their room and met up with the royal siblings in the downstairs room. Azula was dressed in a casual, bright orange suit, and wearing her shades. Ty Lee didn't know how she should greet her. The last thing she did last night was to fall asleep in rebuff of her orders. She was sure to be upset with her, but she didn't know how upset she would be.

The four of them walked into the city without much talking. Mostly, it was Azula deciding that she wanted to go this place, or that place. She kept finding random porcelain stores and glasswork shops for them to visit, or random expensive restaraunts she seemed vaguely uninterested in. Mai and Zuko had started to walk a little bit behind them, leaving Ty Lee and the princess awkwardly sequestered from them as they passed blasse store fronts together.

"What are we looking for?" Ty Lee asked her finally.

"Anything," answered Azula.

"Anything?"

"Whatever you want," she continued. "It's yours. You can have anything, just point. I'll buy it for you."

" _Azula_ ," gasped Ty Lee. They were in front of a stall full of various rugs and carpets that were apparently very old and highly sought. "I don't need _any_ of this stuff," she said. "What are you going on about?"

"Just let me give you something," she blurted out finally. "I'm trying to give you something. I'll throw so many things at you. I'll stuff your face full of expensive delicacies. I'll give you everything in the world - _everything_ \- until you feel worth it."

Ty Lee blinked, at a loss for words. Where was this coming from?

"I want to choose you," she said finally. "I want to prove it."

 _Of course_. She had hurt her feelings last night. She had told her that she couldn't be a princess and her girlfriend, and Azula was trying to find a way to reconcile it.

"I know I'm worth it," answered Ty Lee with a roll of her eyes. "You don't have to do this."

"Well-" Azula exhaled frustratedly. "I don't know that I'm worth it," she admitted.

"Oh no, Azula," said Ty Lee, reaching for her hand. "I know you're worth it, too."

"I don't, though," she whimpered back. Their hands squeezed together and they looked at each other tenderly. "Let me prove it," she begged.

Ty Lee couldn't understand why this was so important to her. She was happy to be strung along with Azula, hand in hand. She didn't need any more than that. She wanted it to be simple, like it was before. Yet, Azula seemed fixated on giving her something to symbolize her devotion.

"Hey, check it out," came Zuko's voice. He and Mai were in front of a stall full of fanciful decorations that they had walked by. He was pointing at one of the installations. "Isn't that the dumb painting from the house?"

Ty Lee blinked. By some miracle, _Fire’s Defiance_ was there. The pink tree was wrapped in that massive sea of orange oils, and she couldn't believe her eyes.

"How?" she whispered to Azula.

"Must've gotten lifted," she answered. In fact, she remembered that painting being on the table she threw out the window, and she identified a slight crack in the frame of the painting from when she tossed it. It was past midday, and that meant there had been plenty of time for someone to come along and retrieve it from beside the ashes of the admiral's house. Of course - it was a rich and esteemed house. Anyone with a brain would've gone to loot its remains for goods to resell.

Ty Lee squeezed her hand firmly. Azula got an idea. "Want it?" she asked. Ty Lee nodded.

Azula got the attention of the storekeeper. "Hey you. Give us that painting," she said, gesturing to it.

"This one? That'll cost you six thousand gold coins."

"Six thousand? Don't make me laugh. You stole it this morning, and you expect to make six thousand off of it?"

"Stole? No, I've not stolen this painting. Maybe I refurbished it - but in any case, you can't prove it's not mine."

"Can't I?" Azula thought for a moment. She could prove it was stolen. She had all the facts she needed.

"Perhaps you don't know this, but this is an Earth Kingdom painting. 17th Avatar Cycle, about 800 years old. It was painted for the king of Omashu. In other words, strictly speaking - it is an Earth Kingdom relic. And that makes it propaganda. The very title is blasphemous. Did you know there is a law prohibiting the sale of Earth Kingdom art in the Fire Nation?"

"No," replied the shopkeeper. "No, I have never heard of this law."

Azula took off her shades. "That's because I just made it up, because I'm the princess, and I can," she stated, snapping her fingers to demonstrate her lightning.

"You're Princess Azula?" the man said as he cowered behind the storefront desk.

"Yes, and that painting is for my girlfriend so that I can stop feeling like I don't deserve her, got it? So you're going to give it to me, and then I will burn your whole shop to the ground."

"Just take the painting, please! I can even show you my house if you want to burn that down, but please, please, have mercy. Don't take away my shop. If I had known it was you-"

"You would've been more careful, I know," Azula rolled her eyes. "Whatever, keep your dumb shop. And tell all your friends that your princess is a lesbian." She took the painting from the merchant's shaking hands and gave it to her glowing girlfriend, who was crying with joy when she looked at her.

~~~

As they walked away, Zuko and Mai chattered off about what a stupid and reckless thing it was for her to do. Azula didn't care. She was taking Ty Lee to dinner tonight, and then - who knows what afterwards.

But first they had to stop by the summer house to drop off their painting, so they said their good-byes to Zuko and Mai.

As Azula walked down the street, Ty Lee followed her, beaming as she embraced her painting to her chest.

"I'll take you wherever you want," Azula was telling her. "Just pick a restaurant, whatever strikes your fancy."

"Are you sure you don't want to decide?" asked Ty Lee.

"Yes! I really don't. I want you to decide," she implored, "and you have to, because I am in charge, so you have to listen to me."

"If you're giving me control over where we eat, doesn't that mean I'm in charge?" posited Ty Lee.

"No, that's ridiculous," replied Azula. They arrived at the summer house, and Azula let them in. "I'm in charge because I'm telling you what I want, and what I want is for you to have what you want."

"Hmm," thought Ty Lee, heading to her room. "I'm pretty sure that just makes me in charge." She placed _Fire’s Defiance_ on her bed as they continued to argue from different rooms.

"No! Listen. How do I get you to understand?" Azula said with an exhausted laugh. "I'm in charge because I get to decide when you're in charge."

Ty Lee walked over to the entrance of Azula's bedroom. To her fluster, Azula's shirt was on her bed. She probably planning to change into something fancy for whatever dinner they decided on. She was forming other plans, though. "And when am I in charge?" she asked.

"When I _ask_ you to pick whatever you want!"

"Well, in that case," said Ty Lee, winding her fingers delicately around Azula's hand. "You may be the master in the streets," she whispered sweetly. "But we're not in the streets now, are we?" With her other hand, she pushed the Azula to the edge of her bed.

"I guess not," said Azula, eyeing her sheets with a sly smile. She fell beneath Ty Lee's hands and collapsed supine on top of her bed. They both already knew who was the master in the sheets.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this (actual) novel! I love this pairing and want to write more, so if you liked this, please leave a comment for ideas for drabbles in this universe you'd like me to do!
> 
> These two vignettes follow their relationship as it evolves following the end of this novel:  
> [Love Was The Top (4k)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24437356/chapters/58963264%20rel=)  
> [When I'm Caught In Fire (4k)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24496015)
> 
> One-shots:  
> [Keep My Heart Beating (500)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24582814)
> 
> This universe is a post season 2 canon divergence universe where the Fire Nation is still a thing 4 years later. I have four novel sequels planned out, and I'm currently working on each of them at my own slow pace. Although established pairings will return in subsequent sequels (and have overlapping storylines with them), each book focuses in on one specific pairing as the main. For example the next installment will be a Katara/Toph fic set some years after this TyZula beach sex :) so if you like femslash in the Avatar universe and explorations on political themes related to LGBTQ+ issues, this series will be great for you!


End file.
